Next Generation: And So It Begins Again
by Hopelight
Summary: The children of the original Digidestined are faced with the perilous task of returning to the Digital World, in order to save Gennai. But once in this unfamiliar new world, they meet frightening new enemies, who may not be so unfamiliar at all..
1. The Reunion

Konnichi wa! Here's the very first chapter of my new series. Thanks once again to those of you who took the time to send in your profiles. I received 20 in all, so it's very likely that most of the characters sent in are not here. But don't be discouraged; they were good anyway! Enough of my babbling…here it is!

****

NEXT GENERATION

…And So it Begins (Again)

CHAPTER ONE: THE REUNION

"Tell me how you and Mom met again, Dad," Witaki ("Lee") Kamiya instructed her dad. She was sitting in the backseat, squashed between her older brother Leon (or "Bubby" to her) and her older sister Shiori ("Holly"). 

Their mother laughed. "How many times do you kids have to hear this story?" she asked. "We've only told it to you about a thousand times."

"But I wanna hear it again Mom!" Lee persisted. "C'mon. It'll pass the time it'll take to get to Odaiba. Please?" 

Sora sighed. "All right sweetie. Tai, why don't you tell it?"

Tai gave his wife a lopsided grin and began the story they had made up, to protect their children from the truth and to keep them from knowing about the Digital World.

"Your mother and I met at summer camp when we were eleven," he began. "I don't think you would call it love at first sight. We fought constantly, mostly in arguments because she was a girl and I couldn't necessarily hit her." 

"I usually won the fights," Sora added with a smile on her face.

"Let's not get into that. Anyway, by the end of the summer, we had worked out our differences and became good friends. A few years later, when we were fifteen, I asked your mother out, and for three years we were a couple. Then at graduation, I asked her to marry me and she said yes. The rest you guys know: the three of you were born, and we moved to Nakano so your mom and I wouldn't have to go so far for work." Tai turned his attention back to the road.

"Sora, what's the road we're looking for?" he asked, peering at the signs. 

She looked at the instructions Izzy had dictated to her over the phone. "Uh…Ninth Street. Why?"

Tai's face went white as a sign whizzed by.

"I think we just passed it," he said. 

"Then turn the car around!" Holly called out.

"Are we there yet?" Cleo Ichijouji groaned. 

"Almost," Yolei assured her. 

"Mom, Cleo is poking me," Jenna, one of her other daughters, complained.

"Cleo, don't poke your sister," Ken told her, his eyes fixed on the road ahead. 

Cleo stuck her tongue out at Jenna and crossed her arms over her chest. "Why do we have to go to this place anyway?" she grumbled. "We could have stayed at home."

Yolei sighed. "Maybe I _should_ have left you girls at home. All you do is fight whenever we're in the car!"

Ken grinned at her. "They're worse than Davis and TK were," he said, smiling.

"Who's that?" Jenna wanted to know. "Are they the friends of yours we're going to go visit?"

"They are," Yolei said.

"And you two had better not fight," Ken cautioned them.

"OK, Dad," the girls chorused. 

Five minutes later, Cleo called out, "Mom! Jenna's squashing me!"  


"Daddy! Watch where you're driving!" Kinaka Ishida yelled.

Matt swerved the car, narrowly missing a little old lady crossing the street. The lady gave him the finger and kept going.

"Why do we have to go to this stupid reunion of yours?" Kinaka pouted. "I'd rather be at home."

"I'm too afraid that you'll burn the house down, Kina," Matt teased her. 

She groaned. "Aw, Dad, I hate that name! I never used to let Mom call me that and I'm not about to let you call me that!" 

Her father's bright blue eyes clouded over at the mention of her mother. Sabrina Ishida had disappeared when Kinaka was seven, and had been found dead when she was eight.

"Hey, I'm sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have brought up Mom."

"No, it's OK," Matt assured her. "If you don't want me to call you Kina I won't, OK?"

"Okay…DAD! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE DRIVING!"

"Are we going to see Uncle Matt?" Hikaru Takaishi asked, bouncing in her seat. 

"And do you think he'll have a moon rock for us?" her younger brother Kiko wondered. 

TK laughed. "Your Uncle Matt works on Mars," he told his children. "I'm not sure if he's allowed to take home rocks from the 'Red Planet' in case of bacteria."

"I'm not afraid of no bacteria," Kiko pouted.

Kari smiled. "You take after your Uncle Tai. You're not afraid of anything, are you sweetie?"

"Nope," came the swift reply.

"And Hikaru takes after her Uncle Matt," TK added. "She acts like him in every way." He smiled good-naturedly at his daughter. "Especially when it comes to being overprotective of her little brother!"

Hikaru stuck her tongue out at her dad.

Kari patted her large belly and smiled. "I wonder who this baby will take after," she wondered. 

"I'll have a Big Mac with fries and a Pepsi," Cody Hida said to the drive-through mike. "How about you, Toshiko?" 

His wife said, "A Quarter Pounder, no fries, and a Sprite."

"Chris?" Cody asked his son.

"Uh…a Big Extra, a large Coke, and a large fries," his son said.

Once they had their food, they drove away and started to eat.

"Why are you taking me to this reunion?" Chris asked through a mouthful of hamburger. "I could have stayed home. I have a truckload of homework that's due Monday."

"Chris, we'll be home by seven o'clock tonight," Cody assured his son. "Don't worry about it."

"Daddy, are we there yet?" Kim Motomiya called out. 

"We'll be there as soon as I can find Ninth Street," Davis grumbled.

"Ooh! I can't wait to see my Matt again!" Jun squealed from the passenger seat. Davis had only brought her along because she'd threatened to sing to him. (Scary thought.)

"Auntie Jun, is Matt the guy who wrote a song about you?" Kim wanted to know. 

"Yeah," Jun said dreamily, staring out the window. 

What she didn't know was that the title of the song was "That Tokyo Skank"_._

Kim giggled. "Auntie Jun still has a crush on him!"

Izzy, Mimi and their children were ready to greet their guests when they arrived. 

Sora and Tai showed up first, their three children in tow. "Hi, Izzy!" Tai greeted his old friend. He looked him up and down and grinned. "I see you have glasses now."

"They're just for reading," he protested. 

"I told him to get contacts, but he didn't listen," Mimi sighed. 

"Mimi!" Sora cried joyously, hugging her. "Oh my God, you look great!"

"You too!" 

The six children just stood off to the side, not knowing what to do or say. 

Matt and his daughter arrived soon after, as well as Davis, his sister, and his daughter. TK and Kari arrived with their two kids almost right after him, and Cody, his wife, and his son came after them. Joe, who had no children, arrived last. While the adults were busy conversing, the kids were stuck standing there, looking at eachother warily.

After about fifteen minutes, the adults remembered the kids. 

"Oh!" Mimi cried. "Lauren, why don't you bring everyone down to the park? I'm sure you kids will have a fun time."

"All right, Mom," Lauren said cheerily. "Let's go, guys!"

"Take care of your brother, Hikaru," Kari warned her daughter, one hand on her stomach. 

"I will, mama," the girl promised. 

"Leon, Holly, make sure Lee doesn't get into any trouble," Tai said.

Leon groaned. "Aw Dad, she can take care of herself."

"And wear your coat today, Kinaka," Matt told her, eyeing her spaghetti top. "It's October, for cryin' out loud, not August!"

Kinaka just rolled her eyes. 

"And as for you, Lauren and Tina, take care of Mike," Izzy told his girls. 

"Fine," they grumbled. 

"All right then. See ya later!" Mimi beamed.

The thirteen kids sat around on the playground equipment, just sort of staring at eachother. Lee, Holly and Leon knew their cousins Hikaru and Kiko, and through their parents knew their second cousin Kinaka. But they had never met the rest of the kids.

Finally, Chris spoke up. "Wow. What a fun party," he said dryly. "Are we gonna sit here all day and stare at eachother?"

Lauren laughed. "I guess we ought to begin the introductions, then."

"OK," Lee said. "I'll go first. The name's Witaki Lee Kamiya, but I much prefer Lee. And I'm eleven, yet most people think I'm thirteen or something." 

"I like your shirt," Tina commented. 

"Thanks!" Lee beamed. She was wearing an orange camouflage shirt with a star on it, as well as a pair of boys' cargo pants and a pair of silver-rimmed blue sunglasses that made her ruby red eyes look almost purple.

She turned to Holly and Leon and grinned. "Hey, Bubby! Holl! Why don'tcha guys introduce yourselves too?"

Her older sister smiled. "Hey, I'm Holly," she informed the others. "I'm thirteen." She tossed back her brown hair and smiled again. "Everyone says I look exactly like my Mom, but she has red hair."

"Bubby doesn't look like anyone in our family," Lee teased. 

Leon grumbled. "Aw geez, Lee! Stop calling me Bubby, dammit!"

"Bubby's fifteen," Lee continued. "And he works out, like, half an hour a day. He thinks it impresses the girls."

It showed. Leon's arms, legs and chest were pretty buff. His red tank top really emphasized his powerful arms.

"I'm Jenna, Jenna Ichijouji," a girl wearing a three-quarter-length sleeved white hoodie and blue jeans announced. Her brown hair was streaked blue, purple and green on her bangs. "Nice to meet you guys. And I'm thirteen, but I bet you guys were thinking I was eleven!"

"I'm Jenna's sister Cleo," a pretty blonde girl with blue eyes told them all. "I'm fourteen." She straightened out her long blue t-shirt and grinned. "It's a pain being Jenna's sister, but at least I'm older than her!"

Jenna stuck her tongue out at her sister.

"The name's Chris Hida," the tallest boy announced. He had short brown hair, and had blue-grey eyes behind a pair of square-rimmed glasses. He was wearing a blue t-shirt and black pants. "And I'm sixteen. I also probably should be at home, doing my homework, but I had to come here instead." He pushed his glasses up his nose and grinned. 

Hikaru smiled warmly at the kids, while her little brother sort of hid behind her. "I'm Hikaru Takaishi," she said. "I'm twelve. This is my little brother Kiko." She pulled Kiko out from behind her, but he was still holding on to the hem of her yellow tank top. "Kiko! Introduce yourself!" she told him, a twinkle in her baby blue eyes. 

"Hi," the little boy said shyly. "My name is Kiko. And I'm eight." He dropped his head, and a tuft of blonde hair fell into his face. 

"And now for us!" a blonde girl with bright green eyes spoke up. "My name's Lauren Izumi, and that's my two kid siblings, Tina and Mike. I'm thirteen, Tina's twelve, and Mike's eight too."

"I guess we don't have to introduce ourselves then," a girl with brown hair and dark eyes behind glasses commented. "You already did that for us, Lauren."

"That, unfortunately, is my sister Tina," Lauren groaned.

"Be nice," a little boy with red hair and shockingly green eyes admonished Lauren. 

"And that's Mike," Lauren said. 

"And then there's me!" a pretty girl with reddish brown hair and chestnut eyes said. "I'm Kim, Kim Motomiya. I'm twelve."

"Is that all of us?" Lee asked.

"No, there's still me," a girl announced. She had her brown hair in a bun with a few strands falling down, and blue eyes with a slight suggestion of a tilt, like her father. "My name's Kinaka Ishida, and I'm thirteen. Don't call me Kina or anything, 'cos I hate that. Got it?"

Everyone nodded. 

"Good." Kinaka reached for her flame necklace and twined the chain around her fingers.

Suddenly, there was a beeping noise.

"What's that?" Kiko asked, fear in his brown eyes.

"Oh, it's probably just my laptop," Lauren said casually, taking a portable orange Pineapple laptop off her back.

"You brought a _laptop_ to the park?" Lee asked incredulously. 

"Yup," Lauren said. "It was my dad's." She flipped open the lid and typed away. "There's this one program I found on here a while ago when I was looking through the hard drive files. It's called analyzer.exe, and every time I've tried to open it, it always asks for a password. Like I know what kind of password my brainiac dad used for that thing!"

"Lemme see that. I'm pretty good with computers," Cleo told her. She sat next to Lauren and peered at the screen. 

What they saw next made them both jump.

A window popped up in the middle of the screen. Right in the middle was a projection of a very old man. The picture was kind of fuzzy, but the sound was clear as a bell. And so was the blood on the front of his robes. 

"Oh my God!" Lauren cried. "Who's that? And what happened to him?"

"Help me…" the old man croaked. "Digi-World…can't do this alone…Sabinemon and MetalDevimon…you new Digidestined…hurry!"

"What?" all the children chorused.

"Ask…your parents…say Gennai said to ask…" he managed to say before the window disappeared. 


	2. Digital Relics

Not much to say, except that I don't own Digimon and I so wish I did

Not much to say, except that I don't own Digimon and I _so _wish I did!

BTW, I changed the name of the new digivices from D-Stone to…well, read it and see!

****

NEXT GENERATION

…And So It Begins (Again)

CHAPTER TWO: DIGITAL RELICS

"Whoa," Lauren said, her eyes wide. "What was that all about?"

Cleo shook her head. "Don't ask me. I've never heard of anyone named Gennai before."

Lee had a thoughtful look on her face. 

~**_flashback~_**

"Sora, Izzy just called. He said that Gennai sent him a message."

Five-year-old Lee was walking past the living room in her pajamas, a glass of water in her hand. Being naturally curious, she stuck around to find out about whom her dad was talking about.

"Oh no," Sora gasped. "Is he in trouble?"

"No, it's nothing like that," Tai assured her quickly. "Izzy says he said that our children are going to be Digidestined. He doesn't know when, but he does know that their enemies are going to be nothing like we've ever seen before. I guess that means that they'll be stronger than we ever were."

"God, Tai, you talk about it like it's nothing! You know Gennai. He's so old that he can't remember anything. For all we know, he could be sending for our kids tomorrow! Lee's only five, and Mimi and Izzy's youngest is three. They'd never make it in the Digital World and you damn well know it!"

Tai sighed. "I'm not saying that I'm not worried too," he told her. "But really, I'm not surprised that the kids are Digidestined. I've had my suspicions."

"What are we going to do, Tai?"

"Let's just hope that Gennai doesn't take them soon."

At that point, Lee walked into the living room. "Are me and Bubby and Holly going on a trip?" she asked sleepily. "And who's Gennai?"

Both her parents jumped. "Go back to bed, honey," Sora told her firmly, gently pushing her daughter out of the room.

~**end flashback~**

"Hey Lee, what's the matter?" Kinaka asked. 

Lee shook her head. "Nothing," she mumbled. 

"Well, I say that we should go back and ask our parents who this Gennai guy is and what he could possibly want," Jenna suggested. 

Lauren closed the laptop and stood. "All right. Let's go."

Izzy greeted them at the door, smiling. "Hey, kids! Back so soon?"

Mike looked up at his father. "Dad, who's Gennai?" 

Izzy's smile faltered_, _and he took a step back. "Tai! Sora! Did you tell your kids anything?" he yelled over his shoulder.

"What!" Tai said indignantly. "After all we've done to keep it under wraps? No way!"

"Matt?"

Matt shook his head. "Uh-uh. I didn't even tell Sabrina when she was alive."

"Mimi? You didn't tell them, did you?"

His wife shook her head.

"TK? Kari?"

"No way," they said in unison.

"Joe? You wouldn't by any chance have told them anything in secret, would you?"

Joe shook his head.

"Davis?"

"Right, I told Kim everything," he said sarcastically. "Yeah right!"

"Cody?"

The youngest adult Digidestined looked outraged. "You of all people should know that I wouldn't," he said indignantly.

"Yolei? Ken?"

"Get a life, Izzy. We don't go telling our kids things that would endanger their safety," Yolei said.

Izzy sighed. "All right then. Who told them if it wasn't any of you?"

Lauren unshouldered her laptop and opened it. "Dad, an image of this Gennai guy popped up on the screen at the park. He was all covered in blood, and the image was fading, but he managed to tell us that he needs us before the window disappeared. Does this have anything to do with this program I can't open on this thing?" 

"Give it to me," Izzy told her. Once he had it in his hands, he sat down and typed away. "Aha. Is the file you can't open by any chance named analyser.exe?"

"Exactly! Dad, what's the password?" Lauren asked. 

"I guess you'll need to know this, because you're going to need it later. It's 'prodigious', p-r-o-d-i-g-i-o-u-s." Izzy typed in the password, and a window with three programs on it popped up.

"OK," Izzy said, clicking away. "Oh…"

"What, Dad?" Mike asked. 

"Davis, do you happen to have your D3 handy?" Izzy asked, ignoring Mike.

"Uh, yeah," Davis said, putting his hand in his pocket and withdrawing a device shaped like a warped walkie-talkie.

"Great. Open the port." 

Davis stepped up to the computer and yelled, "Digi-Port, open!"

A green light flashed on the screen. From the light, several strange-looking devices flew out of the screen and beaned Davis and Izzy right in the head.

"OW!" they both yelled at the same time, rubbing their foreheads.

Lee stepped closer and picked up the navy blue device. It flashed once with a brilliant blue light, then stopped. 

"What is this thing?" she asked. "Dad, do you know what this is?"

"Here, let me take a look," Tai said. 

Lee handed him the device, and he examined it. It was pretty strange-looking. It had Lee's name on it in gold and silver letters across the top, a sort of trigger on the side, and a fairly large screen with Digi-code around it. It almost looked like a cross between the first digivices and the D3's. 

"Well, Dad? What is it?" Lee asked. 

Tai handed it back to his daughter. "Izzy? Should I tell her?" he asked his friend.

Izzy nodded. "I think we should all tell them."

"Tell us what?" Tina wanted to know.

So the adults told their children the whole story of the Digidestined. They began with the original eight, who told of their adventures almost thirty years ago at summer camp. Then they told about the other four Digidestined joining their group four years later, and the stories behind the digivices, D3's, Digi-Ports, Digimon, etc. 

"But I don't get it," Kim said after they were done talking. "Who's this Gennai guy? And how did he send us a message?"

Izzy sighed. "Don't ask me," he said heavily. "Gennai's a mystery himself. He's a very old man who used to help us when we went to the Digital World for the first time. But four years after our first adventures, we never saw him again. Sure, I've gotten emails from him from time to time, but that's just about the only contact I have with him."

"But why would he want us?" Hikaru asked.

"I have no idea," Izzy said. "But judging from Lee's digivice, I'd say you guys are all Digidestined."

"Wait, that's right!" Sora exclaimed. "The digivices! Izzy, you just left the new ones on the floor like that!" And she pointed to the pile of new digivices on the floor.

"Well, we might as well let the kids pick them up. They belong to them anyway," TK said.

Hesitantly, the kids went over to the pile of digivices, and each one picked up the one they thought were meant for them.

Tina picked up the red one.

Chris picked up the black one with a sort of eye symbol on it.

Hikaru picked up the gold one.

Kiko picked up the silver one.

Leon picked up the obsidian black one.

Jenna picked up the teal one.

Cleo picked up the black and white one.

Kinaka picked up the aqua blue one.

Lauren picked up the yellow one.

Holly picked up the orange one.

Kim picked up the purple one.

Mike picked up the green one.

All at one, there was a brilliant flash of white light, as each and every digivice became emblazoned with each kid's name.

"Cool!" Kiko squealed. 

"What are these things called, digivices or something?" Chris asked.

"Uh…" Ken started. "Maybe they should be called something different. I mean, they're not digivices and they're not D3's, so what should they be called?"

"D-X's!" Kinaka blurted out.

Everyone stared at her.

"No, I'm serious!" she said. "I dunno…it just popped into my head. I guess it sounded good to me."

"Well, I like it," Lee said slowly. 

"I like it too," Jenna agreed. 

"I think we _all_ like it," Lauren said.

"I knew you would," Kinaka grinned. Then she looked down at her D-X. "Hey! What's with this thing? It's got my name wrong!"

"What is it, Kinaka?" Matt asked.

She shoved it in his face. "Look! It says 'Kina' on it! I _hate_ that name!"

Matt started to laugh. "Maybe they couldn't fit your name on it!"

"No…" Hikaru said. She held up her D-X. "My name's just as long as Kinaka's and it fits on mine just perfect."

"Oh, man," Kinaka grumbled. 

Just then, the same window that they had seen earlier popped up. It was Gennai again, and he still had blood on his robes. 

"Do they like them?" he asked. 

"Gennai!" Izzy exclaimed. 

"Listen to me, Izzy," Gennai wheezed. "The children need to come. They need to help stop the threat that is endangering the Digital World."

"But who is it?" Davis asked.

The window started to fade. "They'll see when they get here," Gennai replied before the window disappeared again.

Izzy was left staring at a blank screen.

Nobody spoke for a long time. Finally, Lee piped up. "Well, I guess we'd better get going," she said. She picked up her black sports bag from near the door and grinned. "When's the next flight to the Digital World?"

"You get there using a Digi-Port," Sora told her. "Just hold it up to the screen and say 'Digi-Port, open!' That's all there is to it."

Kiko clung to his sister. "Mom, I'm not sure I want to go," he said. 

Kari smiled softly at her son. "Don't worry, Kiko. If you kids really are Digidestined, you'll have your very own Digimon waiting for you in the Digital World. He or she will watch over you and keep you safe."

"Sort of what I already do for him," Hikaru pointed out.

Izzy passed the laptop to Lauren. "Take this with you," he instructed her. "I think that you'll find the analyser.exe program will help you a lot."

Lauren hugged her father. "Thanks, Dad."

All the kids who had brought knapsacks with them picked them up and put them on, while Lauren put the laptop on her back.

"We'll have to use my computer, then," Izzy decided. He led everyone into his large computer room, which had not one, but five computers in it.

"I'll set it up," Ken offered. 

As soon as Ken had the port set up and they were ready to go, all their parents came up and hugged them. 

"Be careful," Sora and Tai warned Lee, Holly and Leon.

"Don't talk to any strange Digimon," Kari and TK told Hikaru and Kiko.

"Don't eat anything you don't recognise," Davis said to Kim.

"Keep in touch over the laptop," Izzy and Mimi said to Lauren, Tina and Mike.

"Wear your coat," Matt told Kinaka, who just rolled her eyes.

"You're the oldest, so I expect you to be responsible and look out for the other kids," Cody told Chris. 

"And don't forget to be careful!" Yolei and Ken said to Jenna and Cleo.

"So, are we ready now?" Lee asked.

"YEAH!" the other kids chorused.

"All right then." Lee held her D-X in front of the screen. "Let's get out of here then! Digi-Port, open!"

There was a flash of green light as they were sucked away into oblivion, on their way to the Digital World…


	3. Some Welcome

Once again, I don't own Digimon

Once again, I don't own Digimon.

Here's where it starts to get better. I know the first two chapters were a bit slow, but I had to make it like that to build the plot up. So…here we go!

****

NEXT GENERATION

…And So It Begins (Again)

CHAPTER THREE: SOME WELCOME

Lee opened her eyes slowly, but shut them against the harsh light. She was sprawled out on her back in the middle of a steamy jungle, with her black sports bag beside her. The other kids were around her, from the sound of it. 

She opened her eyes again. The others were also lying around, all grumbling and groaning about the bright light.

"Are we there yet?" Mike cracked. 

"Oh, he's a smart one," Tina said. "Look around you, kiddo. Does this look like our planet to you? Where on Earth would you find a TV in the middle of the jungle?" She sat up and pointed at a large TV set on top of a boulder.

"What's a TV doing here?" Kiko wondered.

"Maybe we came through it the same way we went through the computer," Jenna suggested. She pulled herself to her feet. "It's all fuzzy. I'm going to see if I can get it working, so we watch pay per view out here." 

Jenna walked over to the TV and pounded it with her fist. Almost instantly, the static cleared, and the faces of their parents could be seen. 

"Mom! Dad!" she called out. 

Ken and Yolei appeared to be saying something, but she couldn't make out just what they were trying to say.

"What?" she asked, straining to hear them.

"Try turning the volume up," Kinaka called out. 

There was a knob on the TV. "Duh, Jenna," she chastised herself, turning it. 

"Are you guys OK?" Yolei asked. "Where's Cleo?" 

"Where's everyone else?" Ken asked.

"We're here, Dad," Cleo called, running up to join her sister. 

"Us too!" the others called out, coming to join them. They all crowded around the TV screen to see their parents.

"Did you find your Digimon, or any Digi-Eggs that might have your Digimon in them?" Izzy asked.

"Dad, we just got here," Lauren said. "I wouldn't even know the first place to look for a Digimon anyway!"

"Don't worry, they'll find you," Mimi assured them.

"Just remember to stay in touch. Do you remember the password for analyser.exe, Lauren?" Izzy asked.

"Prodigious," Lauren answered. "What's it do anyway, Dad?"

"There's a program called comm2.exe," he told her. "All you have to do is click on start, and it'll open. We'll be on it 24/7, so you can talk to us any time."

"All right, Dad."

Before anyone could say anything more, a harsh laugh interrupted them. 

"Sabine Shower!" a loud female voice called out. Gigantic balls of flame rained down on them, a few of them completely demolishing the TV.

"Let's get out of here!" Holly yelled. 

They ran, not even sure which way they were going.

"Is it gone yet?" Kiko whimpered, his face buried in Hikaru's long brown hair. They were all huddled together in a cave nearby.

"I'm not sure," Hikaru answered. "But whatever it was, it sure didn't sound happy to see us!"

"Some welcome," Chris muttered. "Not a very friendly neighborhood if you ask me."

"It's almost like we're not wanted here," Leon said.

"Bubby, you know what Mom and Dad said about evil Digimon," Lee said to him. "Maybe she was being controlled or something."

"If that's the case, maybe we can help her!" Jenna suggested. 

"Are you kidding me? The moment we step out of this place, zap! We're a pile of charred flesh before you know it!" Tina said. "And we don't even know where the hell our Digimon are hiding."

Holly glanced around the large cave. "You know, we could start by looking in here," she said, getting up and walking toward the back of the cave.

"What makes you so sure we'll find them in here?" Leon called after her. 

"I don't know. Just a hunch," she called back.

In a minute or so, she called back to them again. "Guys! I think I found something! Come here, quick!"

Everyone came rushing toward the sound of Holly's voice. There she was, in the semi-darkness, pointing at a small cluster of brightly-colored eggs.

"Whoa. What kind of chicken laid those?" Mike asked.

"I dunno, but it must have been high on something," Kinaka remarked. She walked up to a bright green egg with purple triangles on it, her long denim skirt brushing the rocky floor of the cave. She took it in her hands and said, "This one looks kinda cool. I wonder if it's mine?"

As if to answer her, a crack split in the surface of the egg.

"It's hatching!" she cried out. 

Moments later, a tiny creature burst out of the egg. It looked almost like a small gray fox's head, with deep blue eyes.

"Hi, Kina!" it grinned. "My name is Queisimon, and I'm your partner from now on!"

"Wait a minute." Kinaka turned Queisimon over in her hands. ""What did you just call me?"

"I called you Kina. Isn't that your name?" it asked. "If not, I've got the wrong partner!"

"No, you got it right," Kinaka sighed. "Whatever, you can call me Kina all you want. But the rest of you guys had better not call me that, or else!"

The egg that had been next to Queisimon's started to shake. It was a pale blue egg with orange spots all over it. 

"Whose is that?" Lee asked.

Nobody made a move to pick it up. 

"All right, fine. I claim it," she declared, picking it up.

A very energetic little Digimon burst out of the egg and landed smack on top of Lee's head. "Hi! You must be Lee. The name's Matamon, and it's nice to meet you."

Matamon was blue, purple and black, with liquid silver eyes. 

"How is it talking?" Holly screeched. "It doesn't have a mouth!" 

She was right. It didn't.

"Don't ask me, I'm not an expert on Digimon!" Lee said, taking Matamon off her head. "I bet you're hungry, little fellah."

"That's a wager you'd win," Matamon said. "But listen up, Lee, I'm a girl Digimon. And don't forget it!"

"I've got some candy bars in my knapsack," Kiko said, tossing one to Kinaka and one to Lee.

A pure black egg began to bounce around, as crack after crack formed in its shell.

"I call that one," Leon said quickly, retrieving it. It burst open in his hands, revealing a small black fuzzball with a row of spiky teeth. The tiny Digimon fit in the palm of his hand.

"My name is Bitamon," it announced. 

"Uh, Lee? What the heck am I supposed to do with this thing? It's so small I might end up squashing it or something!" Leon said. He held it up for his sister to see.

"Well, feed it something. Maybe it'll grow," Lee suggested, breaking off half of her candy bar and giving it to her brother. "You've gotta take good care of him, Bubby."

"For the last time, stop calling me Bubby!"

Three eggs hatched at exactly the same time. From the eggs, three little Digimon emerged. One flung itself at Lauren, one bounced over to Mike, and the other just flew at Tina.

"Oh, aren't you cute!" Lauren exclaimed as her Digimon approached her. Her Digimon was a yellow ball of fuzz, with Mickey Mouse ears and a pacifier in its mouth. 

"My name is Bobomon," it announced. 

The little red blob thing that had launched at Tina jumped onto her shoulder. "And I'm her sister, Miyumon," it said. 

"Uh…OK," Tina said. "This is getting weird. I have a blob of red _goo_ on my shoulder!"

"You wanna see goo? Check out some Digi-sludge once in a while!" Mike's Digimon squeaked. It was neon-green and oval shaped, with a long furry green and purple striped tail like a raccoon's. "The name's Landomon. Nice to finally see a human!"

Lauren took out her orange yo-yo with a yellow swirl on it and showed it to Bobomon. "Do you want me to show you how I play with this?" she asked.

"Sure!" the little thing squeaked.

Once she had it all wound up, she decided to show off and do some tricks. "OK, Bobomon, watch this!" she said, getting it started. It went up and down, up and down, and the little Digimon's big green eyes followed the yo-yo's every movement.

"Do you have to play with that _now_?" Mike groaned. 

Lauren just ignored him. "Now watch!" she cried, making the yo-yo do Around the World. "Careful, everyone! Don't wanna get smacked!"

"Laur, pleeeeeeease stop playing with it!" Mike whined. 

"The yo-yo, or the Digimon?"

"THE YO-YO!"

Lauren got it to do Walk the Dog before Mike jumped forward and kicked it. The yo-yo flew around, smacking one of the eggs and cracking it slightly.

"Mike! Look what you did!" Tina scolded. She picked up the egg and asked, "OK, who claims this one?"

"I'll take it," Hikaru said quickly. As soon as the egg changed hands, it hatched. Out popped a small pink jelly-like Digimon, not much unlike Miyumon.

"Hello, Hikaru," it said. "I'm Payimon."

"Kiko, you go see if you have an egg," Hikaru told her brother. "Hurry!" 

One of the eggs had rolled away from the others and was vibrating slightly.

"OK, I choose that one," Kiko said, picking it up. The moment he did, his Digimon burst out of the shell.

"You must be Kiko," it said in a squeaky voice. "I'm Kopomon, and it's nice to meet you!"

"OK, how many Digimon have hatched so far?" Kim asked. 

"Uh…eight, I guess," Lee said, gazing around at the tiny creatures. 

"Don't count your Digi-Eggs before they're hatched," Chris cracked, picking up a red egg with a large white swirl on it. "Hmm, this one looks interesting."

Just as he said that, a small black sphere-like Digimon with two white dots for eyes burst out. It floated up a little bit and rested on Chris's shoulder. 

"My name is Mimon," it announced. "Hey, I'm hungry! Got anything to snack on?"

Kiko tossed him a Nutri Grain bar. "Sorry, I'm out of chocolate," he said apologetically.

Kim was examining a purple egg when it burst open right in her face. "Aaaahh!" she screamed, nearly dropping the little Digimon that emerged.

It was pretty cute. It looked almost like a calico kitten's head, only the ears were long and pointed like an elf's, and it had a long, fluffy black and white striped tail. "I'm Kittmon," it said. 

"OK, does everyone have their Digimon yet?" Kim asked shakily, wiping bits of eggshells off her face.

"_We_ don't," Jenna said, glancing at Cleo. 

"I don't have a Digimon yet either," Holly added.

At that moment, the last three eggs split open and out popped three hatchlings.

"Hi there, Jenna," a tiny black ball with fur that looked like an opal piped up. "I'm Lupamon!"

"And I'm Sullomon," a small red furball that looked like a striped cat's head with a tail spoke up. "I belong to Cleo."

"Don't forget me!" the last one said, hopping into Holly's lap. "The name's Ruyamon, but you can just call me Ruyamon."

Ruyamon was a small yellow head with triangular ears and a sloppy purple "M" on its forehead. There was fluffy white fur growing on its back.

"I don't get it," Holly said. "Your name starts with an R. Why do you have an M on your forehead?"

"Uh, I dunno," Ruyamon said. "I don't even know what an M looks like!"

Jenna looked around at the pile of broken eggshells. "I guess that's all of them," she said. "What do we do now?" 

"I suggest you feed us," Lupamon said pointedly, opening its tiny mouth as far as it would go.

Jenna laughed and shoved a piece of Nutri Grain into Lupamon's waiting mouth.

They spent the night in the cave, too scared to step foot outside in case the thing attacked them. But the next day, when they woke up…

"I'm gonna go play outside," Mike said. "Wanna come with, Kiko?"

"Sure!" Kiko beamed. The two little boys ran out of the cave, with their Digimon bouncing after them.

"Kiko!" Hikaru called.

"Mike!" Tina and Lauren yelled.

"Get back here!" the three girls yelled at the same time.

But the two boys were having too much fun to be bothered to listen to their big sisters.

"Kiko, you forgot your coat!" Hikaru called. 

"Mike, I didn't get to show you the new trick I can do on my yo-yo!" Lauren called out. She brought the yo-yo out again. "Wanna see?"

"NOOOOOOO!"

Lauren laughed, wound the yo-yo up, and started to do the trick anyway. 

Hikaru shook her head. "I'll just go back inside and see if Cleo got the laptop booted up," she said. 

On her way back into the cave, she was nearly hit in the face with a red and black sneaker.

"Aaaahhh!" she screamed, jumping back. 

"Holly, watch where you're kicking!" Leon chastised her, busily shoving food into Bitamon's open mouth.

Holly shrugged and did another high kick. "I'm practicing the kata I learned in karate last week," she said. "Hiiiii-yaaaah!"

"She's just like my dad," Chris commented. "The only difference is, he practices kendo and I'm always getting in the way of that huge stick he uses."

"But she can't beat me when it comes to wrestling!" Lee said, jumping onto Holly's back. The two girls crashed to the ground, Lee sitting on her sister's back.

"And Lee acts like our dad," Leon groaned.

"Lee! Get OFF me!" Holly yelled. "I can't breathe!"

Lee grinned. "Whatcha gonna do, big sister?"

In reply, got up with Lee still on her back and threw her over her shoulder.

Kim laughed. "Way to show her, Holly!"

Lee got up and gave her sister a dark look. "Why you…"

"Shut up," Cleo said irritably. "I can't remember the stupid password to the program! LAUREN! TINA!"

Tina poked her head back into the cave. "What?"

"What's the stupid password?"

"It's p-r-o-d-i-g-i-o-u-s," Kim told her. "Geez, any of us could have told you that!"

Cleo grumbled to herself and typed in the password. Almost instantly, they were in the comm2.exe program, and there were the faces of their worried parents.

"What happened?" Mimi wailed, wringing her hands. "We were so worried about you!"

"We're fine, Mom," Mike said. He and Kiko had just gotten back from outside. "Look, we've got our Digimon!"

Izzy looked at the Digimon and nodded. "What level are they at?" he asked.

"Excuse me?" Kinaka said. "They can actually turn into something different?"

"Oh, please," Jenna groaned. "Weren't you listening when our parents were talking about digivolution?"

Kinaka's bright blue eyes flashed to a nearly hazel-green shade. "Was I expected to remember _everything_ they said?" she demanded.

Cleo jumped to her sister's defense. "You don't need to snap on us, Kinaka," she said.

"Well, they just hatched," Mike said. "So what would that make them?"

"They're just hatchlings right now," Ken told the little boy. 

Kinaka rolled her eyes. "Oh, real original. Who was the genius that thought _that_ one up?"

"Kinaka," Matt warned. "For your information, it was the genius that brought you guys there."

"So it's Gennai?" Kim asked. 

"He always was a bit senile," Izzy muttered. 

"So what other levels do they have?" Kiko asked excitedly.

Kari smiled. "Oh, there's a lot, honey. First there's hatchling, or their baby forms, as we like to call it. Next comes In-Training, and they're just a little bit powerful but not quite. After that is Rookie. They can go off in three different directions from there. The most common form after that is Champion, and after that comes Ultimate. But if they go back to Rookie, they can do something known as warp-digivolution to the Mega level. And once again, if they go back to Rookie, they can Armor-digivolve to Armor. That's like a slightly advanced Champion stage. If they're in their primary champion stage, they can also do something called DNA digivolving, which means that two Digimon digivolve into one. It's sort of like an Ultimate level, too. Do you understand?"

Everyone stared at her blankly.

"I do," Lauren said, "but it's clear from everyone's vacant expressions that they don't."

Tina swatted Lauren in the back of the head. "Hey!"

"I'm just saying!"

Cleo whipped out a small notebook and a pen. She sketched some lines on a piece of paper for maybe five minutes before she showed them her work:

**__**

Hatchling

In-Training

Rookie

Champion (or Armor)

Ultimate (or DNA)

Mega 

"Is this sort of how it goes, Mom?" she asked Yolei.

Yolei peered at her daughter's chart and nodded. "Yeah, that's sort of how it goes," she replied. "I didn't think you'd get it so quickly."

Davis scratched his head. "I still don't get it," he complained. "Kim, do you?"

"Sort of," she replied. "It _is _kinda complicated and all, but I think I'll get it."

"Does everyone understand so far?" Izzy asked.

All the kids nodded, even Mike and Kiko, who really didn't understand.

"Cool!" Mimon squealed. "I get to do all that?"

"I think we _all_ get to do that," Matamon replied.

Chris grinned. "That's cool. But why would they need to digivolve?"

Cody spoke up then. "There's a lot of evil Digimon in the Digital World, son," he said. "Some you may need to fight, and some you might have to influence back to the good side again."

"Fight?" Kiko shivered. "I don't like fighting."

Hikaru put her arm around her little brother. "Don't worry, Kiko. I'll protect you," she said.

"You can lay off on the big sister stuff, 'coz I'm the one who gets to take care of him now," Kopomon squeaked. "Take a paid vacation!"

Hikaru stared at him. "Are you kidding? I don't even get an allowance!" she said. 

"Yeah, and we should all be getting danger pay out of this," Chris cracked.

"I can't say that this doesn't already seem like a suicide mission," Leon grumbled. He crossed his strong arms over his chest. "If these little guys don't hurry up and digivolve, we're going to get our butts whipped."

"Just be careful, and that won't happen," Sora told him.

"One more thing," TK said. "Always stick together, no matter what. Our original group broke up once, when we were just kids, and it was disastrous. Piedmon and the Dark Masters almost wiped the floor with us! So just remember that there's safety in numbers. OK?"

"OK, Daddy," Kiko said. 

"Maybe we oughta go exploring for a while," Lee said. "We'll let you know when something else happens, all right?"

"Sounds good to me," Tai replied. 

"Then, see ya later!" Lauren grinned, closing the program.

After everyone had eaten, including the Digimon, they all decided to go trekking through the jungle.

"And Kiko, _wear your coat_!" Hikaru said firmly, shoving it at him.

But he didn't really need it. It was blistering hot in the jungle. 

"I'm just glad I didn't listen to my Dad and came here as is," Kinaka said smugly. She reached up and toyed with the silver flame pendant on her chain.

Lauren watched, fascinated by the strange piece of jewelry. "That's pretty cool, Kinaka. Where'd you get it?"

Kinaka's face clouded over. "My mother gave it to me when I was three," she replied sadly. "Plus the earrings that go with it. She went missing when I was seven, and the police found her dead when I was eight. Dad took it really hard."

"I'm sorry," Lauren said sympathetically. 

She pulled her hand away from her necklace. "Don't be," she said sharply.

Queisimon hopped around in front of Kinaka. "Kina, don't be sad. I never even knew my Digi-mommy."

Lee, who was pretty much in the lead, pulled out her Gameboy Advanced and started to play Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons. "I just hope the batteries don't die on me," she said, her eyes glued to the screen. Matamon, who was perched on her shoulder, was watching Lee play.

Lauren pulled out her yo-yo and started to play with it.

Kinaka brought out her deck of cards and did a few card tricks on Kim.

Mike and Kiko kept scampering around, playing a game of Tag.

Tina played Solitaire on the laptop.

Chris and Leon yakked about high school sports.

Hikaru started to sing crazy duets with Holly, while Cleo and Jenna danced along to their songs.

In fact, everyone was so engrossed in what they were doing that they practically trampled the girl that walked across their path.

"AAAAAAAHHH!" she screamed when Lee bumped smack into her.

"AAAAAAAHHH!" Lee screamed.

"Who are you?" the girl demanded. "I've never seen other humans besides my family in the Digital World."

"You mean you _live_ here?" Jenna asked incredulously.

The girl tossed her short blonde hair. "Of course I live here. I've _always _lived here. But my parents used to live on some whacko planet called Earth. I've never been there."

"That's where we're from!" Mike exclaimed. 

The girl looked down at him. "Well, greetings, Earthlings," she said in a mock robotic tone. "Listen, my house isn't too far away. Why don't you come with me? It's not safe to be out here for a long time, what with Sabinemon and MetalDevimon around."

"Who, what and the what now?" Tina asked, dumbfounded.

The girl rolled her eyes. "Greenhorns," she muttered. "OK, come with me. Mom and Dad will want to meet you."


	4. Deeper

Mwahaha…not even the guys who actually do own Digimon could have done a better job, ne

Mwahaha…not even the guys who actually _do _own Digimon could have done a better job, ne? 

****

NEXT GENERATION

…And So It Begins (Again)

CHAPTER FOUR: DEEPER

"Lee, are you 100 percent, totally, absolutely, positively sure we should trust this girl?" Holly hissed into her sister's ear.

"I heard that!" the girl called back. "And just for your information, you can trust me. I'm not going to rip any major organs out of your body and claw your eyes out. I'm especially not going to slit your throats and leave you here for the Vulturemon to come pick you apart. Maybe my bratty little sister Rachael would, but I won't.

"And I have hearing like a bat, too. If you gotta say something, say it to my face, OK?"

"All right then," Kinaka said. "Who the hell are you?"

The girl laughed. "I'm Deanna Ruble," she replied. "If and when you little greenhorns start trusting me, you can call me Dee or something. But NOT Deedee! I can't _stand _that nickname!" 

"Kina hates her nickname too," Hikaru giggled. Her reward for that was a sharp elbow in the side courtesy of her pissed cousin.

"Call me that again and I'll do all the terrible things Deanna's sister would do to us," she hissed.

Deanna laughed. "My whole family's a bunch of practical jokers. And my Digimon is just plain _fun_. I mean, really, she's just—"

Kiko interrupted her. "You have a Digimon?" he asked. "Cool!"

She shrugged. "She's just a hatchling, but Mom swears that some day, she'll turn into something big, like my Aunt Catherine's Floramon."

Something stirred at the back of Hikaru's memory about a Catherine and a Floramon, but she didn't know what.

"My Aunt Catherine lived in a country on Earth called France," Deanna continued. "She used to tell my mom this story about when she got kidnapped and brought to Versailles Palace. Then some old guy and two young guys came with Digimon and rescued her. Their names were something like TJ and Taichi. I think that's kinda funny, 'coz Tai Chi is a kind of yoga or something, and…"

"Did their names happen to be TK and Tai?" It was Lee who had interrupted this time.

Deanna pondered this. "Well…I guess they were," she said thoughtfully after a minute or so. "Why?"

"Taichi's my dad's name!" Holly said. "And TK is my uncle's name."

Deanna's face brightened. "Oh my gosh! Are you serious?" she asked. 

Leon stepped forward. "Would we lie?" he demanded.

"Cool your jets, Bubby. Yes, it's true. Why?" Lee asked.

Deanna's ice blue eyes were wide open. "Then you must be the kids of the kids my neighbour Gennai always talked about!"

Kim nearly stumbled over Kittmon. "You mean you know where Gennai is?" she asked eagerly.

Deanna shook her head. "No," she said sadly. "He disappeared. My sister Rachael was really upset, because he used to tell her stories all the time. We first found out he was missing a week or two ago, after Sabinemon and MetalDevimon attacked our area. My family had our hands full for a few days, Aunt Catherine and Floramon especially, since Aunt Cat's a nurse and Floramon has some natural healing properties in her pollen. Once we had all the Digimon fixed up, we realized that we hadn't heard from Gennai during all this. So Dad went next door, with his Coelamon for protection and…" She stopped.

"And what?" Cleo prompted her.

"He found a mess. There were plants and furniture knocked over, his aquariums with Digi-fish broken open, and well, lots of disturbing stuff. He didn't tell Rachie because she's just little, but he told Mom and Aunt Cat and me that he found blood on the walls. Gennai also left a projection for him to find. He said that he was in a realm that was not the DigiWorld and not Earth, either. He also said that he had sent for some kids from Earth to come and help, and would we please make sure that we keep you safe when you got here. After chores, I decided I'd come out and look for you. Lucky thing I found you before Sabinemon or MetalDevimon did!"

"Sabine…that sounds familiar," Tina said thoughtfully.

"Well, duh," Kinaka said. "That was what whatever attacked us yelled out before we almost got creamed by fireballs! Only it was called Sabine Shower or something."

"Sabine Shower is Sabinemon's most powerful attack," Deanna told her. "You're lucky you escaped. She could have killed you! I know of a few Digimon that she reduced to ashes when they got in her way."

Kiko whimpered and clung to Hikaru's hand. Mike did the same to Lauren.

"Relax," Deanna laughed. "We're going to be perfectly safe once we get to my house. It's hidden really well, just wait and see."

After half an hour of walking, they reached a clearing near a lake.

"We're here!" Deanna called.

Jenna gazed around. "I don't get it. Where's the house?" she asked. "Don't tell me you live in a sod house, like Laura Ingalls Wilder!"

"Who's that?" Deanna asked.

"Never mind."

Deanna made her way over to a large stump near the edge of the field and knocked on it. "I'm home, Mom!" she called out. 

Jenna leaned over and whispered to Cleo, "She's flipped her lid."

"I heard that!" Deanna called out just as the stump cleared away, revealing a big, gaping black hole.

Kiko's eyes were wide. "Cool!" he squealed.

"C'mon, we've gotta slide down," Deanna told them, jumping down the hole.

Mike and Kiko made a mad rush for the stump. "If it's a slide, I'm _so_ on!" Mike cried, and the both of them jumped down the hole. Landomon and Kopomon followed suit.

Everybody looked t eachother warily.

"Aw, what the hell, I've got nine lives," Kittmon shrugged. 

They soon found themselves on a long, twisting slide leading far underground.

"This is better than a theme park!" Chris cried out as they whooshed down the slide. 

"The only difference is the fact that we're in complete darkness!" Leon called back.

They were sliding for a minute or so, until…

BAM! They hit a pile of pillows at the bottom of the slide.

"Ow…" Kiko groaned from the bottom of the pile. "Hikaru, GET OFF ME!"

"I can't, because Kinaka and Queisimon are sitting on my back!" Hikaru grumbled.

"And _I _can't get up because Lee, Chris, Leon, Holly, Cleo, Mike, Lauren, Tina, Kim, Jenna and their Digimon are on top of me!" Kinaka yelled. "GET OFF!"

Deanna just stood there, laughing at them. A tiny Digimon was nestled in her arms.

"This is my partner Kishmon," she said. 

The little cream-coloured head wiggled her straggly ears at them and showed her two tiny teeth. "Hi!" she said. "Are you the kids our neighbour was talking about?"

"Are who the kids our neighbour was talking about?" A petite lady with long blond hair and icy blue eyes, like Deanna's, walked into the room. She had a rather thick French accent. At her side was a Digimon that looked like a cross between an acorn and a flower.

"Hi, Aunt Cat," Deanna greeted her. 

Catherine looked the children up and down. "Dee, darling, who are your friends? I didn't know that anyone close to your age lived around here."

"These are the kids Gennai told us to take care of," Deanna replied nonchalantly, kicking off her shoes. "And you guys, that's my Aunt Cat and her Floramon."

Catherine went right up to Kiko and stared into his face. "I see," she said. "This little one, he looks exactly like that nice little boy TK I met when I was fifteen. Except he has brown eyes. And you…" she made her way over to Lee, "you look almost exactly like Tai, only not in your eyes. But you are a girl, no?"

"Of course I'm a girl!" Lee cried.

"I was only teasing," Catherine said with a wink. "Come inside. You must meet Dee's parents and her little sister."

Hesitantly, the group followed Deanna and Catherine into a living room. A little boy, perhaps about two or three, was playing with a toy train on the floor and making a lot of noise. Two other adults, both with Digimon, sat on the couch, looking worried. A younger girl with strawberry blonde hair and bright green eyes lay in front of the TV, watching a video.

"Dee!" the other woman cried, rising from the couch. She looked almost exactly like Deanna, except she had green eyes. "Darling, where were you? I was so worried! When Yukamon and I came to see how you were doing, Kishmon told me you went off without her into the forest! _What _were you thinking?"

"Mom, I'm perfectly fine," Deanna said. 

Her father also rose from the couch. "Deanna, I thought we were clear about the rule we have here: no going off alone until Sabinemon and MetalDevimon leave Server. We can't have you running off alone, especially without Kishmon to help you. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Dad."

The little girl in front of the TV got up. "Mom, I think she brought home some friends," she pointed out, staring at the others.

Deanna's parents finally saw them. So did the little boy.

"Digi!" he cooed, waving his little train around. 

"Careful, Lucas," Catherine told him. 

Deanna's mother walked up to them. "Hi," she said, extending her hand to Lee. "I'm Dee's mom, Gwen. And that's her dad, Brian."

Her father nodded his head. "How do you do?"

Kinaka jumped in. "OK, just asking, but how did you people end up in this Digital World place anyway?"

Gwen sighed. "It was, I suppose, entirely my fault," she said. "Catherine came to my baby shower in America. She and her husband lived in France and hardly ever got to see me. Anyway, one day while I was showing them around, a storm hit. We tried to get back to our apartment in time, but we were swept away. When we woke up, a very old man was standing over us. He said his name was Gennai, and he had brought us here because my Yukamon was injured badly and said she needed me to ease her dying. Cat was furious, but what could she do? 

"Yukamon eventually got better, but we were trapped here. In time, Gennai reunited Floramon and Cat, and found Dee and Brian their own Digimon partners. He promised he'd find one for Rachael, too, but he never got around to it."

Catherine stepped in. "She had Dee a few months later. We've been stuck here nearly fourteen years, and I can't even begin to imagine what everyone back home is thinking."

Deanna laughed. "Mom, Aunt Cat," she said, shaking her head. "Don't be sad! We have these Digidestined kids here with us now, and I just know they're the kids Gennai said would help us out."

Brian appeared to be shocked. "Di-Di-Digidestined?" he sputtered. 

"Oh, come on, Dad," Deanna snorted. "I'm one too. You knew there was more of them out there." With that, she pulled a shiny black D-X out of her pocket. "Do you greenhorns have one of these things yet or what?"

In reply, Kinaka took hers out of her backpack and shoved it in her face. "This enough proof that we're Digidestined, Miss Smarty?" she asked.

Cleo stepped between them. "Calm down, Kinaka!" she said. She grinned at Deanna. "So you're a Digidestined too? Cool! When did you get your D-X?"

"It's been in our house practically since she was born," Brian told them. "Gennai gave it to us the day she was born and said to give it to her on her tenth, because she'd need it then. He gave her Kishmon's egg on her tenth birthday, and it was her D-X that helped it hatch."

"It's not fair," Kishmon complained, pouting her tiny lips. "I've been a hatchling for years now! When am I gonna digivolve?"

Deanna patted the top of Kishmon's head. "When the time is right, you will."

Suddenly, there came an acrid burning smell from the kitchen.

"The food!" Gwen cried out, racing into the kitchen. "I forgot!"

Catherine raced after her. 

Deanna doubled over laughing. "Mom, even if the food's not burned, I'm betting there won't be enough for thirteen extra people!"

"Is this safe to eat?" Chris asked fifteen minutes later, holding up a neon orange triangle-shaped fruit. Everyone was outside, eating fruit from the trees that grew on the edge of the lake.

"When in Rome," Holly shrugged, biting off one of the corners. After she'd chewed it thoughtfully for about five seconds, she grinned. "Hey! Not bad! It tastes kinda like kiwi."

"What's that?" Rachael wanted to know.

Gwen laughed. "A kiwi is a fruit from Earth," she explained. "It's oval-shaped and fuzzy and brown on the outside, but inside it's green and really sweet."

"Sounds good." Rachael pulled a leaf off a bell-shaped green plant and took a bite.

"I'm allergic to kiwi," Kiko said.

"He is. And unfortunately, Mom has a practically sinful passion for them," Hikaru told them, peeling the rind off a large blue thing with spikes growing out the sides.

"Don't just peel the skin off and leave it!" Deanna screeched. She gathered up the peel and handed it to Hikaru. 

"Here," Catherine said, shoving a bowl of dip at her. "Dip it in this. Trust me, you'll like it." She smiled.

Mike looked totally disgusted. "I never eat the peel off my oranges or anything," he declared. "I get Mommy to peel my fruit for me."

"Squirt, you gotta stop turning your nose up at good food," Tina admonished him, her mouth half full with a bite from a grape the size of an apple.

There was a sudden banging noise. Everyone turned their heads to see Leon, furiously trying to crack open a coconut-like fruit.

"This stupid thing!" he yelled, hitting it as hard as he could on a nearby stone. 

"What is that?" Jenna asked, gaping at the fruit. 

"It's a chuckieberry," Brian said nonchalantly. "Leon, if you want to get that open, you've got to tickle it."

"_Tickle _it?" he asked incredulously. "I'll starve first, thank you." But he lightly ticked the chuckieberry, and it fell open in his hands. 

"Weird," Kim muttered. She went back to eating her orange fruit, the same kind that Chris and Holly were eating.

Suddenly, the sunset-streaked sky went completely black. A strong, hurricane force wind began to blow, whipping at them. 

"Uh-oh," Deanna muttered.

"Everyone, get back in the house!" Brian yelled. He opened the stump and began to hustle Catherine and Lucas inside.

"Are they back?" Deanna yelled over the sound of the wind.

"I can smell them!" Kishmon yelled back. "They're close!"

A high, cackling laugh was heard. "You won't get away this time, you puny humans," it laughed. "Sabine Shower!" 

Fireballs rained down from the sky like hail. Soon the whole field and even some of the trees were ablaze.

"My turn," a deeper voice said. "Death Ray!" 

A black ray came from the sky and hit Floramon, Yukamon and Coelamon full-force. The three Digimon lay there, wounded. 

"Floramon!" Catherine cried, trying to run to her Digimon. Gwen stopped her, just as another rain of fireballs came down.

"Cat, get inside! Deanna, get your friends in the house too!" she cried out. 

"But Mom!" 

"Never mind me! Just get in the house!" Gwen was bent over Yukamon as she spoke.

Queisimon began to struggle in Kinaka's arms. "Kina, Kina, let me go!" she cried out. "I wanna fight whoever's attacking us!"

"Don't be so stupid!" Kinaka yelled. "It's dangerous! You'll get creamed!" 

"Just trust us!" Matamon called out. "Let's do this thing!"

A beam of light shot down from the sky and enveloped their little Digimon in light. All of them watched in amazement as the hatchlings began to digivolve for the very first time.

"Queisimon digivolve to…Rupimon!"

"Matamon digivolve to…Supamon!"

"Bobomon digivolve to…Miniamon!"

"Bitamon digivolve to…Kiromon!"

"Payimon digivolve to…Tokimon!"

"Kishmon digivolve to…Mattomon!"

"Mimon digivolve to…Misomon!"

"Ruyamon digivolve to…Pesomon!"

"Miyumon digivolve to…Vivrimon!"

"Sullomon digivolve to…Ivimon!"

"Lupamon digivolve to…Calimon!"

"Kopomon digivolve to…Wokimon!"

"Landomon digivolve to…Jaiomon!"

"Kittmon digivolve to…Hypamon!"

Kiko uncovered his eyes. "Are they OK?" he asked.

"Look at 'em go!" Hikaru said, her eyes wide open. 

All fourteen In-Training Digimon had launched themselves at two immense Digimon coming at them.

"BUBBLE BLOW!" they all yelled. All but Rupimon, who yelled out, "ICE BUBBLE!" Bubbles of all sizes and colours came out of their little mouths. 

"You think that can stop us?" the female Digimon laughed. She was about twenty feet tall, dressed in pure black, with two red glowing eyes. She would have been pretty if she wasn't so dismal-looking. Her skin was a clammy gray, her lips were perfectly shaped but black, and her black hair hair was long, straggly and crawling with vermin.

The other one, a gigantic demonic creature gleaming with metal, also began to laugh. "Let's just get what we came for," he said. He pointed his finger right at Jenna. "That pretty girl looks like she'd be able to help us."

Ice-cold fear flooded Jenna's veins. "No!" she screamed.

"I won't let you take her!" Calimon yelled. "BUBBLE BLOW!"

But her attack was useless.

"Allow me to introduce myself and my partner before we take you," the female Digimon grinned wickedly. "I am Sabinemon, the Dark Princess."

"And I am MetalDevimon, or as my subjects call me, the Greater Evil," the other one said. 

"And this is a little toy of ours that will take you back to our fortress," Sabinemon said, pulling out a ray gun like you'd see on cartoons. "Say goodbye to your friends, darling."

Her long, clawed finger twitched on the trigger, while Jenna steeled herself for the blow.

The moment Sabinemon fired, a stream of green light came from the gun. Just before it hit Jenna and Calimon, Leon and Kiromon jumped in front of them and took the hit for them. Both the boy and the Digimon vanished, as did Sabinemon and MetalDevimon.

Lee and Holly stared at the spot where their brother had just been standing, their mouths frozen open in horror.


	5. Black Blood, Red Eyes

NEXT GENERATION ****

NEXT GENERATION

…And So It Begins (Again)

CHAPTER FIVE: BLACK BLOOD, RED EYES

__

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon and I probably never will. 

When Leon awoke hours later, he found that he was stretched out on his back on a cold stone floor, in a room stripped of light. 

"Ow," he muttered as pain shot through his head. He reached up his hands to massage his temples. His hands touched something wet, warm and sticky. It could only be blood. 

_They must have hit me pretty damn hard,_ he thought, his teeth gritted against the pain. _Those freaky Digimon that did this to me are going to get their butt kicked!_

From somewhere deep in the darkness, what sounded like a steel door creaked open. Leon struggled to lift himself off the floor. When he had finally succeeded in standing, he clenched his fists at his sides and waited in silence for whatever had just entered the room.

Cold hands grabbed hold of his shirt and spun him around. When he was face to face with his assailant, he opened his mouth to tell him or her off…but all he saw was a pair of glowing red eyes. He stiffened in fear.

"So now we have you!" a female voice cackled. He was lifted off his feet as Sabinemon picked him up by the shirt collar and carried him out like that.

"Kiromon!" he yelled. "Kiromon!"

But there was no answer.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOUR BROTHER'S BEEN KIDNAPPED?" Sora's voice rang through the house.

"How did this happen?" Tai demanded. 

Lee had her face buried in her hands. "I don't know," she wailed. "Some…some huge, creepy Digimon came along and zapped him with a ray gun thing, and he just disappeared!"

"Dad, isn't there anything you can do?" Tina asked Izzy.

"Not much I can do," Izzy said, "but see if your D-X's can track him. Our old digivices could do that, but only for a certain distance."

"How far?" Cleo asked.

"About 25 meters. We once used them to find eachother in Japan, but it took a while because some of us were out of range," Joe replied. 

While the adults were talking to the kids, Jenna was pacing up and down the living room floor. Her teeth and fists were clenched. 

"Jenna, get a grip!" Chris told her. "Why are you so worked up over this?"

"Chris, did some guy you barely even know just throw himself in front of you to protect you?" she shouted. "I didn't think so!"

Ken and Yolei pushed their way to the screen. "Jenna honey, it's not your fault," Yolei said. 

"I know it's not, Mom. It's just that…" Jenna trailed off. "How can I explain this without feeling stupid?"

"Well, your mother inherited the Crest of Sincerity. Go on, Jenna, just say what's in your head," Ken urged her.

"It's like this. I don't think that those Digimon that attacked us were truly evil," she said, feeling stupider with every word that came out of her mouth. "I think they were just influenced somehow by something dark and evil." She hung her head. "I know, it doesn't really look like they're good, seeing as they just took Leon like that, but that's what I think."

Kinaka snorted. "That's gotta be the dumbest thing I ever heard."

"Who asked you, _Kina_?" Lauren said angrily. "I think she's right."

"I think she's wrong. And _don't call me Kina!_"

"She's right. Kina."

"She's wrong. Bitch"

"She's right. Freak."

"She's wrong. Loser."

"She's right! So cram it!"

"Make me! She's wrong!"

"I don't make pigs, I eat them!"

"Takes one to know one!"

"Dammit! Would you two just shut up?" Kim yelled. "I don't see how arguing over something so stupid is going to get us anywhere!"

Kinaka's eyes flashed hazel again. "All I'm saying is that Sabinemon and MetalDevimon don't seem to be all sugar and spice and all things nice."

"Isn't that what little girls are made of or something?" Kiko asked. "MetalDevimon's a guy."

"Excuse me?" TK said. "What did you just say?"

"Metaldevimon's a guy," Kiko repeated. "Why?"

TK's eyes were wide with horror. "Devimon's back?" he said weakly. 

**_~flashback~_**

_"Angemon, be careful!" 8-year-old TK yelled to his partner. _

"I'll get him. Don't worry," the Angel of Hope said, smiling down at the scared little boy. 

"Come here, pretty boy!" Devimon cackled, stretching out his long arm in an attempt to grab at Angemon.

"I'll stop you. Hand of Fate!" Angemon used his most powerful attack against Devimon. And it worked.

There was a bright flash as Infinity Mountain became completely engulfed in light. As TK watched in horror, not only did Devimon completely disintegrate, so did Angemon. 

"TK, I'll come back again, if you want me to," the angel promised before he was completely gone.

TK sank to his knees. "Angemon, no!" he cried, tears streaming down his cheeks. 

As he cried, a tuft of feathers came floating down in front of him. They piled up, and became a white and orange striped Digi-Egg. Patamon's egg. 

TK picked the egg up and cradled it to his chest, as the older Digidestined watched. He vowed in his heart that he would do whatever it took to get Patamon back.

~end flashback~

"TK, we don't know if it was the same Devimon," Kari said softly. 

Still, TK's fears didn't lessen. "I think it might be," he said firmly. "After all, wasn't he in the Dark Whirlpool years ago? He might have gotten his strength back from the pool and digivolved."

Brian nodded. "That's exactly what happened. Gennai told us about it before he disappeared."

"I just hope Leon's all right," Sora said softly. Leon was her first child, and she didn't want to lose him any more than Holly or Lee.

"I remember your parents," MetalDevimon said to Leon, clamping an iron cuff around one of his wrists. "Your father was too cocky for his own good. And your mother was too blind to see that everything he did, he did for her."

Leon tried to struggle his way out of Sabinemon's vise-like grip, but it didn't work. "Where's Kiromon?" he demanded. "What did you do with him?"

"He's perfectly fine," Sabinemon told him, roughly forcing his other hand into another iron cuff. "You'll see him in a minute."

Once they were done chaining him up on the wall, Sabinemon snapped her fingers. A ragged-looking Gazimon dragged a small black Digimon into the room.

"Kiromon!" Leon called out. 

The little Digimon's eyes were closed. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you, Leon," he said sadly. 

Leon rattled his chains angrily. "Let him go!" 

MetalDevimon laughed cruelly. "Sorry, but I'm afraid that's impossible."

"I'll do anything!" Leon offered. "I mean it! Just let him go!"

Kiromon opened his ruby red eyes and shook his head. "Don't do anything you'll regret," he warned his partner. 

It was too late. Leon had already made up his mind.

"Anything, hmm?" Sabinemon grinned. "Well, tell you what, darling. If you become our slave, we'll let your pathetic little excuse for a Digimon free. Do we have a deal?"

Leon nodded. 

"All right then." MetalDevimon unlocked his chains, but the moment Leon was on the floor, he took a willow switch from behind his back and hit him in the face with it. Leon fell to the floor, a deep cut above his left eye.

Kiromon was also released. "You dirty rotten S.O.B.'s!" he yelled. "Kiromon digivolve to…Fangmon!" 

Fangmon looked like a black baby raptor with yellow stripes and long, savage claws. **(A/N: Kinda like Agumon.)**

Sabinemon just laughed. From a pouch at her side, she pulled two black spiral bracelets out and latched one on Leon and one on Fangmon. Instantly, Fangmon's violet eyes became a glowing red like Sabinemon's. Leon stirred, but didn't wake up.

The evil Digimon grinned. "I think our new slaves are ready to go."

"Are you absolutely sure we should have used the last two Dark Spirals left over from the Emperor's reign?" MetalDevimon asked apprehensively.

"Oh, come off it," Sabinemon said, irritated. "They're as good as they were twenty-five years ago. What could possibly go wrong?"

Sabinemon tilted her head back and let out a long, full laugh. MetalDevimon added his laughs to hers, and their bone-chilling laughs were heard all around File Island.

"Shit!" Cleo swore, tossing her D-X to the ground. "This stupid thing isn't finding him!"

"So maybe he's not around here," Hikaru suggested. 

"Just exactly where are_ we_, anyway?" Holly asked.

"We're on Server, a continent across the ocean from this tiny island called File Island," Deanna told them. "It's about six thousand kilometers away."

"Any other land masses we should know about?" Lee asked.

"Well," Gwen said, "I don't really know much about the geography of this country, but I do know that there's two other continents. To the northwest, there's Kai, and to the southeast, there's Torii. We've never been to either of those continents."

"Great. Just peachy," Jenna said, kicking a stone. "He could be anywhere, for all we know."

Kinaka's eyes suddenly flashed hazel again. Her mouth fell open slightly, and she turned and pointed due south. 

"File Island," she declared, grinning at Rupimon. "He's there. I just know it."

"How do you know?" Holly asked.

"I just do." Kinaka flashed Holly a big grin. "Trust me on this, OK?"

"I trust you. But how the hell are we gonna get to that island?" Tina asked.

Deanna grinned. "You'd be surprised."

"A _whale_? And a giant purple dolphin? These are your modes of transportation?" Chris asked, flabbergasted.

"Hey, I used to ferry your parents from here to there," Whamon declared. His friend Roanemon nodded her large head in agreement. 

"I never met the other Digidestined, but I've been taking Deanna and her family for cruises since they came here," she said.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Lee said brightly, hopping onto Whamon's back. 

"Dee, don't forget to wear clean clothes every day while you kids are gone," Gwen called. 

Deanna made a face. "Aw, Mom," she groaned. 

They were about to embark on a journey across the ocean to find Leon. Kinaka swore up and down that she knew for certain Leon was on File Island, and knowing how right her cousin was about everything she had a hunch about, Hikaru had backed her up. 

"I packed you some chuckieberries and apple grapes," Catherine added. "They're in your knapsack, Dee."

"Aw, how come I don't get to go?" Rachael grumbled.

"Bye bye!" Lucas gurgled.

"All aboard!" Roanemon called. "I'll take half of you guys, and Whamon can take the other half."

Kinaka, Deanna, Lauren, Tina, Mike, Kim and their Digimon went on Roanemon's back, while Lee, Holly, Jenna, Cleo, Hikaru, Kiko, Chris and their Digimon went with Whamon. 

"So long!" Brian called after them.

"Bye!" all the kids chorused, waving.

Kiko's little face was green. "Uhm, I know it's not such a good time to mention this, but I'm feeling kinda seasick."

Leon's eyes were a glowing red when he woke up. The cut above his eye was still dripping blood, but the blood was black. 

"Masters," he said once he'd gotten to his feet and wiped the blood out of his eyes. He bowed deeply. 

Sabinemon grinned impishly. _Told you_, she mouthed to MetalDevimon.

"We aim to please," Fangmon said in a robotic tone.

MetalDevimon cast a glance at Leon's powerful arms. "Well, if you really want to please us, you can help us do a little construction work."

"Ahh…nothing like the fresh salt air!" Kim sighed, inhaling deeply. It was two days since they'd begun their journey.

"Having fun yet?" Deanna called across to the group on Whamon's back.

Hikaru made a face. "Kiko threw up three times already," she groaned. 

"And _we_ had to clean it up!" Tokimon and Jaiomon complained.

Suddenly, in the distance, a dark shape appeared. As they drew closer, they could make out the outlines of trees and a gigantic mountain.

"Is that File Island?" Tina gasped. "Wow! You sure got us here fast!"

Whamon laughed. "I'm in good shape."

Roanemon slapped him playfully with one of her fins. "Oh yeah? And just who beat you in a six-thousand kilometers long race last week?"

As they neared the island, though, they noticed something odd. Spaced out between the trees were huge black dome-like buildings. All of them had lights affixed to the tops, and the lights were shining black.

"What _are _those things?" Lee gasped.

Chris shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe there's a bunch of concerts going on."

"Well, I don't hear any music, do you?" Kim said. 

Roanemon made a sort of growling noise. "Those aren't stadiums. They're Black Domes."

"I can see that," Deanna said, "but what are they?"

"I just told you, Dee!" Roanemon answered, spraying some water through her blowhole at Deanna. "The Black Domes channel Sabinemon's and MetalDevimon's powers. There's been talk of some new slaves of theirs, a human who can lift six times his own weight, and a Digimon that sticks at his side and takes all the crap for him."

"What kind of crap?" Jenna asked.

"Let's say the human didn't finish his work on time. The Digimon would be taken aside and receive double the punishment for the human's sake."

Chris whistled. "Sounds like something my math teacher would do."

"That's just plain cruel!" Mike burst out. He'd been oddly quiet through the whole journey, even though according to Tina and Lauren, he never usually shut up unless he was asleep. 

"Calm down, squirt," Tina told him.

"Still think they're good and all, Jenna?" Kinaka asked. 

Jenna stuck up her middle finger. "Bite me."

"With pleasure." Kinaka bared her teeth. "Let's get her, Rupimon."

"But Kina, what if you have rabies?" Rupimon piped up. 

Kinaka's face went red. "Oh, forget it," she muttered, while the others laughed.

Soon they reached the shore. They landed at a rocky cliff with waves pounding at the rocks.

"Looks scary," Kiko whimpered.

"Aw c'mon, kiddo," Hikaru said, taking his little hand. "Solid land, here we come!"

They began to get off of Whamon and Roanemon. But, unfortunately, they had a little mishap…

"All right! Let's go!" Jenna yelled, jumping off of Whamon's back. She misjudged her landing by about ten feet and landed almost right on top of Chris's head. Both of them went tumbling to the ground.

"OW!" they both yelled at the same time. 

"Jenna, you just had to have extra apple grapes, didn't you?" he groaned. "You almost paralyzed me!"

"Better you than me!" she shot at him, scrambling off his back and helping him up. The rest of the kids had dismounted once Chris was on his feet.

Deanna turned to Roanemon and Whamon. "Thanks for the lift, you guys!" she called, waving. 

"You're welcome," Roanemon grinned.

"Bye," the two marine Digimon said at the same time, diving under the water. 

Lauren pulled the laptop off her back and opened it up. In record time, she had comm2.exe open, and there were the faces of their parents again.

"Are you all right? Where's Lee and Holly?" were the first words out of Sora's mouth.

Lee pushed her way to Lauren's side. "Hi, Mom," she said. "We just got to File Island. But there's something wrong. Lauren, turn the computer around so the parents can see the Black Domes."

Even though they couldn't see their parents' faces when they saw the Black Domes, they all heard them gasp.

"Scary, huh?" Kiko piped up once Lauren turned the laptop back around. 

TK nodded. "You kids be careful, OK?" he said. 

"We will," Hikaru promised. 

Suddenly, Kari's face registered surprise and shock. "Hikaru, Kiko, I've got to go now," she said, sounding apologetic. "Your little brother or sister is on the way."

"What? Mom!" Hikaru cried, knocking Tina off her feet when she scrambled to be right at the screen. 

The screen was blank by the time she got there.

Kiko grinned. "Yay! A baby!" he cheered. "I bet it's a boy."

Hikaru groaned. "If it is, I'll bet any money that you little brats are gonna overthrow me."

Leon hammered the last nail into the newest Black Dome and stood back, surveying his work. "It's finished, Master," he called to MetalDevimon.

"Let me see." MetalDevimon swooped to his side. "Not bad, but I think this thing could use an extra coat of paint. Fangmon! Get the paint, on the double! And if you don't hurry your ass up, you get double the whipping and no dinner!"

Fangmon came over, struggling with a huge vat of black paint. 

"No brushes?" Sabinemon asked.

"I'm sorry, my lady," he sniveled. He ran off, and returned five seconds later with two paintbrushes.

While the two worked, MetalDevimon grinned at Sabinemon. "The plan is working, my sweet," he said to her. "You were right. And those Dark Spirals my son MaloMyotismon commanded the Digimon Emperor to make twenty-five years ago work like a charm. Look, the boy's strength is increased sixfold, and his pathetic little Rookie doesn't even complain. What could possibly go wrong?"

"I've heard tell that Sabinemon and MetalDevimon live in a castle on top of Infinity Mountain," Chuumon said, bouncing on and almost falling off of his friend Sukamon's head. 

"And that would be where?" Holly asked.

"The mountain is in the middle of the island," Sukamon said. "You can't miss it. It's huge!"

"And steer clear of those Black Domes," Chuumon added. "They're packed full of electricity and are pretty much huge bug zappers. I know from experience."

"Thanks," Lee thanked them.

"Good luck finding your brother!" Sukamon called after them.

Pesomon bounced around Holly's feet. "Holly, are you scared?" she asked. 

Holly had her head down. "Yeah," she said quietly. "I'm really scared. I don't know what they might be doing with Leon right now. I know, he's my big brother and since I'm his little sister it's my responsibility to hate him, but I'm…so…scared." Her last words were choked off with a little cry.

"Stop it," Hikaru commanded her cousin. "Just stop it, _Shiori_. We're going to find him, and he's going to be OK. Don't think about being scared!"

Holly wiped away the tears that were starting to form in her eyes. "All right. I'll try," she promised.

"Good. Now we don't have to worry about a deluge," Kinaka declared. 

Soon it was night. They had gone pretty far and were almost near Infinity Mountain's base.

"That thing is huge," Kim said in awe, her head tilted back to stare up at the huge, hulking mountain. "It makes Tokyo Tower look like an ant hill!"

There was a loud grumbling noise. Everyone turned around to see where it was coming from, when Kiko grinned sheepishly and said, "Sorry."

"Was that your tummy, Kiko?" Hikaru asked. 

The little boy nodded. "Uh huh," he said. "I'm _hungry_. When are we gonna stop and eat?"

Mike piped up, "Tina, I have to go to the bathroom."

"Oh, brother," Tina muttered. "Mike, can't you just go use the bushes?"

While he did that, Chris made an interesting discovery.

"Hey guys!" he called out from a short distance. He was standing at the mouth of a fair-sized cave. "Check it out!"

Lauren shrugged. "It doesn't look like the Hilton, but if it's shelter…"

Kinaka elbowed her. "What are you, some kind of hoity-toity rich girl?"

"My father is practically a millionaire, in case you didn't know. And I bet you probably didn't, since you're so dumb."

"Speak for yourself, blondie!"

"There they go again," Lee muttered, stepping into the cave. "They fight more than me and Bubby do."

Kim looked at her funny. "Just a thought. Why do you call him Bubby?" she asked.

Lee shrugged. "Beats me. But I've been calling him that since I could talk. My mom swears that was the first thing I said. She says that he had my bottle and was taunting me with it, and being four at the time, he was a real pain in the ass about it. Finally, when he squirted me with milk, I couldn't take it any longer and yelled out, 'Bubby!' Or that's how Mom tells it."

"Famous words of Sora Takenouchi Kamiya," Holly grinned. "That's what my Dad says every time she tells us that story."

"Whatever." Kinaka rolled her eyes. She looked up at the sky, which was purplish-red from the sunset. "I think it's going to rain," she declared.

"And I think you're nuts," Lauren scoffed. 

"I'm dead serious, blondie."

"Oh, fine," Lauren grumbled, going into the cave. 

After a feast of the fruit that Deanna's mom had packed for them, they got the shock of their lives. Within five minutes of eating, their Digimon began to digivolve again!

"Calimon digivolve to…Pikkimon!" 

"Pesomon digivolve to…Syramon!"

"Rupimon digivolve to…Auroramon!"

"Supamon digivolve to…Starymon!"

"Tokimon digivolve to…Mikomon!"

"Mattomon digivolve to…Thimon!"

"Misomon digivolve to…Minomon!"

"Vivrimon digivolve to…Rubymon!"

"Ivimon digivolve to…Mousiemon!"

"Wokimon digivolve to…Tyumon!"

"Jaiomon digivolve to…Empramon!"

"Hypamon digivolve to…Donamon!"

"Miniamon digivolve to…Usaiamon!"

There in front of them was a jumble of little rookies by the time they were done digivolving.

Jenna grinned. "Great! Now we have a better shot at beating Sabinemon and MetalDevimon!" she cheered.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to take the Dark Spirals off them for the night?" MetalDevimon asked apprehensively. 

Sabinemon removed Leon's Dark Spiral and kicked him through the door of the cell. Then she took Fangmon's Spiral off and threw him in after Leon. The minute she slammed the cell door shut, the two of them flung themselves at the door and banged on it with all their might.

"Let me out!" Leon yelled. 

Sabinemon smirked. "Rest up, my pets," she cackled, turning the key in the lock. 

"Why are we doing this again?" MetalDevimon asked.

"He's growing weak," she replied, playing with the two Dark Spirals. "If we keep these on them 24/7, they'll eventually die. And we don't want them to die."

"Such compassion for the child and his Digimon," MetalDevimon said. "I think you're getting soft, my love."

Sabinemon laughed. "Did I sound like I was finished? I was going to say, we don't want them to die. Yet."

Leon banged his head against the wall. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so drained of energy. At his side, Fangmon was curled up in a ball, whimpering. 

_What's the matter with me? _he thought. He looked down at his bruised arms and rubbed his aching shoulders. _I must have been getting a pretty solid workout, but what's with the bruises? _

He went to push his hair out of his eyes when his hand touched a sore spot on his face. It was the cut above his left eye that he'd gotten from MetalDevimon.

_As soon as I can, I'm getting out of here, _he thought angrily. _Look at Fangmon. He's completely banged up! He looks like he got in a street battle…and lost. I've got to get us both out of here, before something worse happens to him._

Something stirred in the corner. A short scuffling sound was heard, followed by a low moan.

"Who's there?" Leon called out tentatively. Fangmon opened one sleepy violet eye to see what was going on. 

A man, wearing tattered clothes, wassitting in the corner, half-shrouded in the shadows. He seemed to be beat up worse than Leon or Fangmon.

"Who are you?" the man and Leon asked at the same time.

Catherine sat on her chair on the porch, holding Lucas. The little boy was completely tuckered out after a day of playing. 

"We should get you to bed soon, my baby," she said. 

She sighed mournfully and gazed out onto the water of the lake. _I wish Gennai was here,_ she thought. _He might have been able to help. _

Had it really been three years since her husband had disappeared? John had come with them to the Digital World, but months after Lucas was born, he went hunting with his Kibomon and was never seen again. Catherine had always suspected that there had been foul play involved, and she was certain that somehow, MetalDevimon and Sabinemon were behind it. 

She sighed again.

Then, it began to rain.

"Told you," Kinaka said triumphantly. 

Lauren glared at her. "Ok, so you were right. What are you, some sort of weather girl?"

"Speaking of rain and weather girls…" Kim grinned. "It's raining men! Alleluia, it's raining men, amen!"

"I'm gonna go out, I'm gonna let myself get…" Tina continued, grinning.

"…Absolutely SOAKING WET!" Cleo sang. 

All the girls pitched in their voices for the next part. "Humidity's rising…Barometer's gettin' low…According to our sources…The street's the place to go…'Coz tonight for the first time…Just about half past ten…For the first time in history…It's gonna start raining men!"

"It's raining men!" Kinaka yelled.

"Alleluia!" Lee called out.

"It's raining men!" Jenna giggled.

"Amen!" the rest of them laughed. All the girls collapsed, giggling, to the floor of the cave.

Chris gave the girls an apprehensive look. "Do your sisters usually act like this?" he asked Mike and Kiko. 

The boys shook their heads.

Chris watched as the girls started to do a little dance. "Somebody call the looney bin," he muttered. "We've got a whole truckload of lunatics for you."

"I've been in here for three years," the man said. He pulled at the frayed edge of his sleeve. "My darling wife must be out of her mind with grief, not knowing where I am." He sighed.

"Cheer up, man," Leon said. "I'm trying to think of ways to get us out of here."

"Oh, really? Have you thought of anything yet?"

Leon scratched his head. "Well…" he said thoughtfully, "I never really thought of anything yet. Do _you _have any ideas?"

The man pointed to a wall that was scratched and notched. "I've had 782 plans so far," he said. "I've been caught trying to escape every time."

"You gotta be kidding me. You actually count?"

"What else can I do? I've been stuck here so long I'm surprised I haven't gone nuts!"

"I don't even remember how I got like this. _I _must be going crazy," Leon said, holding out his bruised arms. 

"Hmmm…" he said thoughtfully. "I don't know. If my wife Catherine were here, she'd have a salve on that right away." He sighed. "Oh, I miss her. And my little boy, too."

"Wait," Leon said. He poked Kiromon awake. "Look, buddy, I know you look like crap right now, and you probably feel like it too, but can you slice the bars open on the window so we can go?"

"Can do!" the little Rookie beamed. "_Fang Slash!_" Using his claws, he sliced the iron bars into penny-sized chunks. 

"All right!" Leon cheered, scrambling for the open window.

"Now that you girls have settled down," Chris said, "do you mind telling me what we're gonna do tomorrow?"

"Simple," Lee said. "We're going to climb that mountain. Maybe Leon's up there."

Kinaka came back into the cave. She'd gone out for a second to get some fresh air. "He is," she declared. "Or rather, he was."

"What?" the others chorused. 

Kinaka grinned mysteriously and beckoned to something or somebody outside. 

In came Leon, and a blonde man wearing incredibly tattered and dirty clothes. 

Deanna's mouth was wide open. "I…I don't believe it!" she gasped. "Uncle John?"


	6. Call Him Back

Roses are red, violets are blue, I don't own Digimon, and neither do you __

Roses are red, violets are blue, I don't own Digimon, and neither do you.(Unless you're from Toei and you're reading this.) There we go.

****

Next Generation:

…And So It Begins (Again)

CHAPTER SIX: CALL HIM BACK

"You _idiot_!" Sabinemon hissed, smacking MetalDevimon over the head with her bull whip. "This is all your fault!" 

MetalDevimon glared at her. "Excuse me, but whose brilliant idea was it to take those Dark Spirals off for the night?"

"Shut up!" Sabinemon paced the floor, her long claws clacking on the stones. "I'm trying to think."

"And I'm sure you'll come up with something just as brilliant as your last plan," MetalDevimon said sarcastically. "I say we just set the whole island ablaze. He'll never survive. And if his pesky little friends show up, all they'll find is a charred, barren strip of land in the Digipacific Ocean."

"And burn down all the Black Domes with it? Are you nuts?" she screeched. "I'd say someone need to remove his head from his butt before the noxious fumes damage his little brain!"

"Hey, an idea is an idea," he protested, "and it's a better idea than yours. We can rebuild."

"Don't be such an ass," she muttered. 

Then her eyes lit up. 

"Ah!" she said. "I think I might have an idea."

She tossed the Dark Spirals to MetalDevimon. "Upgrade them. We'll need to make them stronger, and besides, you're the one who's better at channeling the darkness than I am."

"I should have drowned myself in the Dark Whirlpool," he muttered, slinking off to his workshop.

"Dee…Dee, wake up," John Lavois called to his niece.

Deanna opened one icy blue eye, then the other. "Wha…"

"It's all right, sweetheart," he said soothingly. "You passed out. Was I that much of a shock for you?"

The girl sat up straight and wrapped her arms around her uncle. "I thought you were dead," she cried into his shoulder. "Aunt Cat was so upset. You should have seen her. She's still upset. What happened? And where's Kibomon?"

John's bright blue eyes clouded over. "Sabinemon killed him," he said bleakly. "He tried to digivolve, but it was no use. There was no way he could have fought her and won. After he was deleted, Sabinemon and MetalDevimon locked me away in a cell. They barely even fed me. I tried escaping numerous times, but it never worked."

Leon jumped in. "I don't even remember how _I _got in that cell with him and Fangmon here, but I was all banged up. Fangmon was too, but he managed to slash the bars off the window for us. We climbed down the side of the castle, and got down the mountain faster than I thought by just sliding. John thought he saw smoke, so we came to check it out. That's when we found Kinaka just standing out here, and here we are!"

Kinaka grinned and toyed with her necklace. "What can I say? I was just in the right place at the right time."

"Bubby, I can't believe you're back!" Lee cried, hugging her older brother. 

"Aw geez, Lee, let me go. And STOP CALLING ME BUBBY!" he groaned, trying to shake her loose.

But he didn't even struggle when Holly came up and flung her arms around him. 

Hikaru gasped when she saw a long, winding burn mark on his upper arm. "What's that from?" she asked, horrified.

He shrugged. "If I knew, I would tell you."

Chris's brow was furrowed. "I don't get it," he said. "How could you have forgotten what happened to you in less than a week? Man, you must have the memory of a freaking goldfish!"

"No, but he's got the attention span of one!" Lee cracked. Her reward for this was a light punch in the shoulder from Leon. 

Fangmon curled up in front of the fire between Mousiemon and Auroramon. "I'm so tired," he yawned. 

Mike and Kiko yawned, too. Both boys looked like they were going to fall asleep. 

"Bedtime, Mike," Tina said sharply.

The little boy's bright green eyes were half closed. "But I'm not even tired," he protested.

"Mike, I'll take out my yo-yo again if you don't go to bed," Lauren said, her eyes twinkling. She reached into the pocket of her jeans.

But she didn't even need to take it out. Mike had fallen asleep by the time she finished her sentence.

"Well, I guess he won't mind if I play with it for a minute or so before I go to sleep," she grinned, winding her yo-yo up.

Kinaka rolled her eyes, but said nothing. 

"We'll talk to our parents tomorrow, when we're not so tired," Lee said. 

"Sounds good," Kim agreed. "And Hikaru, you and Kiko can check on how your mom's doing."

Hikaru nodded. It was clear she was worried about her mother, who had been very ill after she had Kiko.

Long after everyone had gone to bed, Jenna was still wide awake. 

__

Why can't I sleep? she wondered, rubbing her eyes. She pressed a button on her D-X, and it lit up. It was 2:17 in the morning.

__

Damn. Maybe I should get up and go outside or something. So she got up and walked out, being careful not to step on anyone, especially Pikkimon.

To her utmost shock, she wasn't the only one who had decided to go outside that night.

"Hey," Leon greeted her. "Couldn't sleep either, could ya?"

Jenna let out a little cry and stepped back.

"Don't be scared. I don't bite…not hard, anyway," he added for fun.

She laughed, a bit nervously. "Uh, OK."

Leon leaned back against a tall tree near the mouth of the cave. "It's so quiet out here," he said. "I've never been anywhere so quiet in my life. In the city, it's so different, what with the cars and that."

Jenna nodded. "Uh huh," she said. _Oh, smooth, _she thought. _Bet he thinks you're reeeaally smart now, Ichijouji. All you've really said is OK and Uh-huh. You haven't even thanked him for saving your life, you big idiot!_

She cleared her throat. "Uh, Leon," she said, feeling a bit foolish, "I kinda want to thank you. You know, for saving me. I still can't believe you took that hit for me."

"Think nothing of it, Jenna. I had to protect you. Who knows, you might not have escaped from the castle on Infinity Mountain if you had been kidnapped instead of me. Besides, I never pass up the chance to save a pretty girl like you."

Jenna felt a hot blush creep across her face. 

Leon pulled out his D-X. "Hey, it's pretty late!" he exclaimed. "Maybe we ought to go back in."

"Uh, sure, whatever."

TK paced the waiting room nervously. It had been ten hours, and still nothing had happened. 

"TK, calm down," Yolei said from the bench. She and Ken had driven him and Kari to the hospital. "Kari will be just fine. She's done this before, hasn't she? And what's that old saying, something like three time's the charm?"

Still he paced. "I'm not going to relax until I know for sure she's OK," he replied. "I just have this weird feeling that something's gone wrong."

Ken got up, and five minutes later, returned with a steaming paper cup of coffee. "Maybe you should have some," he said, handing it to TK. "I remember when Yolei was in here for Jenna, I had about fifteen cups. It helped."

TK laughed and drank the whole cup down. Who knows, it might help, and he was willing to do anything to calm himself down.

"Rise and shine!" Cleo yelled. "Somebody's gotta come fishing with me, otherwise I'll end up carrying all the breakfast back."

"Cleo…" Jenna groaned. 

"Up, up, up," she told her sister, poking her with the toe of her sneaker. "Up you get! You too, Lee and Kim. We're goin' fishing."

"Sounds fun," Lee grumbled. "Seeing as we don't have any fishing line, or poles for that matter. What are we gonna fish with?"

Cleo tossed a bundle of long, sturdy sticks that she'd been collecting all morning, since before the sun even rose. "If we have any thread or anything, we can tie it on."

"Sounds good, but what about hooks?" Kim queried. 

"Hmmm…" 

Fangmon got up and grinned. "Maybe I can help. I have claws. Claws equal hooks. Hooks equal _food_! I'll come with you and help you out, OK?"

"OK," the girls agreed. 

With Fangmon's help, they managed to catch a whole lot of fish that would feed the crowd of fifteen people and fourteen Digimon. By the time they got back, Tina and Chris had got the fire going, and Lauren had the laptop booted up. 

"How come you left us alone?" Pikkimon asked Jenna. 

Jenna mussed the top of Pikkimon's furry little yellow head and grinned. "You looked like you were having such a nice dream."

Lee brought her brother to the screen. "Mom! We got Leon back!" she cried.

"Oh thank God," Sora sighed. She suddenly looked a lot better than she had when she found out Leon was missing.

Kim pushed her way over to the laptop. "Hey, Dad!" she greeted Davis, who was looking plenty worried. "You look kinda like a Mack truck hit you. Is everything OK?"

"Where are _my_ parents?" Cleo asked.

"And is my Mommy OK?" Kiko yelled out above the din.

"Whoa, one at a time!" Mimi called out. 

Izzy answered Cleo first. "Your parents drove Hikaru and Kiko's mom and dad to the emergency room," he replied. 

"Has my dad or anyone else called with any news?" Hikaru asked eagerly. 

Matt sighed. "TK called a little over an hour ago," he told his niece, looking a bit grave. "She seems to be having a really hard time. They think something's wrong with the baby."

Hikaru's breath caught in her throat, and she couldn't speak. 

Kiko started to cry. "But Mommy will be sad if something bad happens," he wailed. "And she has all sorts of stuff for the baby, and she's got names picked out and everything. Why does something gotta be wrong?"

Hikaru knelt down and put her hand on her little brother's shoulder. "Now you listen to me, Kiko," she said firmly, though tears were slowly welling up in her eyes. "You have to be brave. Don't think that something's going to happen to the baby. Just think about it _living_, and think about going home to see it and about being a big brother. Be like Daddy and have hope."

The little boy sniffled back his tears. "OK, Hikaru. But…what if something happens to Mommy instead?"

He'd voiced Hikaru's deepest fear: what if her mother got sick again?

A tiny cry pierced the tomb-like silence in the waiting room, around one in the afternoon.

"Am I hearing things?" TK asked quietly. "Did I just hear a baby crying?" 

Ken sat up. "I head it too."

"Well, if we all heard it, we didn't imagine it," Yolei said. 

TK ran to the door of the maternity ward, to be knocked over by it swinging open.

"Hey!" he cried out indignantly. But before he could tell off who knocked him over, he noticed that three doctors were wheeling a cot down the corridor. 

It was Kari. And she had an oxygen mask over her face.

"Kari!" he yelled. "Where are you taking her? _KARI!"_

"Something's wrong," Kinaka said softly. She was playing with her pendant again, wrapping it around her fingers and twisting the chain almost into a knot.

"Don't scare me," Hikaru moaned. "I'm already scared enough."

"Kina, do you have another one of your funny feelings?" Auroramon asked Kinaka. 

"I do," she replied. She twisted her chain a little harder. "It's like something got thrown off balance. Like the darkness is eating away at the light." Then her eyes grew misty. "I just hope Aunt Kari's OK. After all, she's got the Crest of Light and she'll be the most affected."

Kiko whimpered, but didn't say anything.

"Are you done yet?" Sabinemon yelled, later that night.

"Stop nagging me! I'll be done in a minute," MetalDevimon called back. "Slave driver," he muttered under his breath.

"I heard that!"

"Good for you!"

He picked up the two objects he'd finished making. "Perfect," he cackled. He'd just modified the Dark Spirals, and had made them into long black chains with amulets on them. One had a black pearl on it, and the other had an onyx on it. Both gems were surrounded by silver Digi-code.

Sabinemon poked her head into the room. "You'd better have made them stronger."

"Oh, but I did," he cackled, showing her. "They're Dark Amulets now. The pearl is from an oyster I found in the Dark Whirlpool, and the onyx was passed down from my father, Wrathmon. Both are imbued by the very darkness that infects every dark corner of the Digital World, and I intensified that power six hundred fold."

She nodded. "Uh huh. And will they drain our escapees of their power once we put them back on?"

"No, they won't," he assured her. "I tested them on a few of our weaker slaves. See?" And he pointed to a far corner of the room, where several small Digimon were writhing on the floor in agony. Only a few seemed to be all right.

"It's a good thing we're evil, or I'd feel sorry for them," Sabinemon said glibly. "Now let's get going. We have to catch those little rugrats off guard."

It was past midnight. Only a few of the Digidestined were awake, since they were on guard duty. Kinaka had insisted on staying up, Hikaru couldn't sleep with her worry anyway, and Lauren and Holly were just simply told to stay on guard. Lauren was plenty mad that she had to stay up with Kinaka, but Tina barked at her, "Get over it!" 

Kinaka suddenly stiffened. "We have to get out of here!" she cried. "And I mean now. Sooner than now. I don't care if almost everyone's asleep."

"Why?" Holly asked.

"They're coming for him," she replied. "They're going to come soon to take Leon back. Sabinemon and MetalDevimon are coming down Infinity Mountain right now!"

"Kinaka, are you on drugs or something?" Lauren asked. "You've been acting strangely all night. We're not going to leave just because of another of your stupid 'funny feelings', that's for damn sure!"

"Lauren!" Kinaka flared. "If we don't get out of here now, we are all going to get killed. I guarantee it. They'll block off the cave's entrance and we'll all be stuck in here to die." She went right up to Lauren's face and stared her down, her eyes icy-green in the firelight. "Do you want to be the one to stick around and find out?"

Hikaru stepped up next to her cousin. "Look, Lauren, Kinaka has always had these 'funny feelings'. I have never had any reason to doubt her, and I'm not doubting her now!"

Lauren cursed under her breath. "All right, but if you're bullshitting me…"

"Now why would I do that?"

Within minutes, everyone was herded out of the cave.

Kiko and Mike, who had just gotten to sleep, could hardly keep their eyes open. "What's going on?" they kept asking.

"It's OK," Hikaru told Kiko, holding him close. "Don't worry. Kinaka just thought we should get out of there."

"What is the meaning of this?" Deanna's Uncle John asked angrily. 

Deanna put her hand on her uncle's arm. "Calm down, Uncle."

"Why did she make us all get up?" he continued, still looking mad.

Lee paled and pointed into the sky. "I think _they_ were the reason!" she cried. 

Up in the sky, flying closer and closer, were two dark shapes. Sabinemon and MetalDevimon.

"Leon, go hide somewhere and take Fangmon with you!" Lee cried over the sound of the rushing wings. 

"I'm not leaving you guys alone!" Leon yelled back. 

"Don't worry, we'll hold them off." Lee looked and sounded quite sure of herself.

"How?" Kim asked. 

Cleo grinned. "Kim, ever hear of a little something called digivolution?" She held out her D-X. "Go for it, Mousiemon!"

"Mousiemon digivolve to…"

But something blocked her. 

"Hey! What gives?" Mousiemon squeaked indignantly. "Why can't I digivolve? Something really screwy is going on, Cleo."

A sort of rumbling noise interrupted her. 

"Oops," she said sheepishly. "I'm pretty hungry. I haven't eaten in about six hours, and I'm starved!"

Chris shook his head. "I bet that's why she can't digivolve. If you've noticed, our Digimon digivolved for the first time after they'd had a good meal. Maybe, just maybe, they have to be well-fed before they can do anything that takes up such major energy, such as digivolution."

Tina jumped in. "Sorry to keep you from coming up with brainy theories, but THEY'RE COMING!" she shrieked.

They were. Now they were beginning to descend from the sky, their red eyes glowing like embers from a fire.

"Great idea, Kinaka! Now they're probably going to kill us all!" Lauren yelled.

"They might have blasted the cave, and caused it to become sealed off. Or they might have set a fire to the outside entrance so we'd be trapped. You don't know! At least out here we have a fighting chance!" Kinaka's eyes were hot with fury.

"What chance? Look around you, _Kina_. Our Digimon are hungry, and they can't digivolve. We have two evil Digimon coming, and…"

"Hello," Sabinemon purred from behind Lauren. "So nice to see you again."

"What do you want, Sabinemon?" Deanna yelled.

MetalDevimon cackled. "We're just here to collect what's ours. Come here, boy." He pointed at Leon with one of his long, clawed fingers. 

Though Leon tried to fight it, his legs began to move forward on their own. 

"What are you doing to me?" he cried. "Stop it!" He thrashed his arms, tried to hold his legs still, but it didn't work. "Fangmon, help me!"

Fangmon ran toward Leon and grabbed his wrist, but he only ended up being dragged along with Leon. 

Right toward Sabinemon and MetalDevimon.

"Now we have you, you little brat!" Sabinemon grinned as she snatched hold of Leon. "Now, do it quickly!"

"Can do," MetalDevimon said, slipping the chain over Leon's head. He put an identical chain over Fangmon's head, too.

Sabinemon tossed Leon to the ground like he was a rag doll, and MetalDevimon did the same to Fangmon. Both fell to the ground with a thud.

"Now, ATTACK!" Sabinemon commanded them.

Leon got up slowly and faced the other Digidestined. His eyes were pitch black, with no whites or irises. "Do it, Fangmon," he said in a mechanical voice, holding out his D-X. 

"Fangmon digivolve to…Darkmon!"

Darkmon closely resembled MetalDevimon, only he was buff and had four huge, black wings.

Sabinemon and MetalDevimon started laughing. "We've got you, Digidestined, and your little Digimon too!"

"Leon!" Holly screamed. "Leon, don't do this!"

But he paid no attention. "Kill them, Darkmon," he said. 

"_Shadow Beam!_" Darkmon cried out. He sent a wave of darkness at them, which missed them all narrowly.

"We've got to get out of here!" Mike cried, tears streaming down his cheeks.

Jenna marched boldly up to Leon. "No. We're not going until I can get this thing off him!" she declared, trying to pull the Dark Amulet off him. But the moment her fingers touched the chain, she screamed in pain and pulled her hands away. Both of them were red, raw, and blistered.

"Jenna, get out of there!" Pikkimon yelled. "_Pin Zapper!_" 

Pikkimon's attack slammed into Leon and pushed him far away from Jenna.

"Screw this, let's go!" Lauren cried. "Kinaka, I'm going to kick your ass, I swear I am, as soon as we get out of this mess!"

They all ran off into the forest, not even caring where they were going.

Darkmon began to spread his wings to take flight, but Leon stopped him.

"No," he said. A tiny flicker of light appeared in his eyes. "Don't go after them." 

"Do something! He's gone soft!" Sabinemon hissed.

MetalDevimon took a strange little box with a dial on it out of a pouch at his side. He gave it a twist, and suddenly Leon was on the ground. 

"Master, please, have mercy!" he screamed in agony. 

"All right." MetalDevimon turned the dial the other way around, and he stopped screaming.

"Now, my slave," he said, "come with us. We're going to let those kids hide—"

"WHAT?" Sabinemon screeched.

"—and then we're going to seek and destroy them," he finished.

"Kinaka, do you realize we almost got killed?" Lauren yelled at Kinaka. "All your little 'funny feeling' did for us was get us out of that safe, warm cave, where we only ended up getting Leon captured again!" 

The Digidestined were deep in the forest now, with just Cleo's pen light keychain and a small fire that Rubymon had lit for light. 

"We also might have died if they'd have trapped us in the cave," Kinaka said with venom clear in her tone. "Think about it. A tiny cave, no air…I'd rather let one of us get captured than have all of us die and the whole Digital World and Earth as well fall into chaos."

Lee and Holly looked furious. "That's our _brother_ you're talking about!" Holly yelled. "Do you have ice water running through your veins instead of blood?"

The arguing went on for a lot longer. Finally, after about half an hour of a full-blown screaming match, a long, shrill sound cut through the argument.

"Shut up! All of you, just shut up!" Kiko cried.

Everyone gaped at Kiko, who had a camp whistle dangling around his neck. 

"I agree with Kinaka, it's better that we had Leon captured than all of us die," he continued, sounding more mature than his eight years. "But Lee and Holly are right. She shouldn't be so cold. Leon's a part of this team too."

Nobody spoke for a long time. 

Hikaru finally broke the silence by saying, "Well! Good speech, little brother. Now, we oughta get to bed. We can go up Infinity Mountain to look for Leon tomorrow."

"Now wait just one second!" John said. "You're all just children."

Lee grinned. "Sorry, but we've got to go."

"Then in that case, I'll have to come with you."

"All right," everyone agreed.

"Now that all this is settled, let's sleep," Cleo said. 

Once everyone had gone to sleep for the night, Jenna was still awake.

__

We have to find him, she thought. _I don't care how evil he is now. I don't care if my hands are so swollen right now that I can barely use them. I don't even care if we die trying to fight him. We just have to get him back._

With her palms throbbing, Jenna eventually drifted off into a troubled sleep.


	7. Seek and Destroy

We should all know by now that Digimon is SO not mine, so why do I bother with these disclaimers __

We should all know by now that Digimon is SO not mine, so why do I bother with these disclaimers?

****

Next Generation:

…And So It Begins (Again)

CHAPTER SEVEN: SEEK AND DESTROY

"She's beautiful, TK," Ken said softly to his friend. He and Yolei and TK were standing outside the glass that separated them from the room with all the newborns in it. Beside them, proud fathers were peering through the glass and pointing their new babies out to the other dads.

"Thanks," TK said, staring at his new baby girl, Tania Riki Takaishi. She looked almost like Hikaru had when she was a baby. 

Yolei looked extremely worried. "What did the doctor say?" she asked.

TK sighed. "Kari had a seizure almost directly after Tania was born. She went into a coma right after it. He has no clue if she'll wake up, considering her medical history and that."

Yolei's hand flew to her mouth to keep her from crying out.

"I hope she'll be all right," Ken said, his hand on TK's shoulder.

"I hope so too," TK said quietly, his eyes fixed on Tania.

"Are we there yet?" Mike groaned. "I'm tired, and my feet are sore! When can we stop and take a break?"

Hikaru was huffing and puffing. "Yeah, Lee. I know Leon's your big brother and all, but can we please stop before my lungs burst?"

"And my hands sorta hurt, what with all this climbing," Jenna added. Her hands were wrapped in thick spider webs and ooze from a plant that John assured would heal the burns.

Lee sighed. "I suppose we all deserve a little break. Let's sit down."

Kiko sat on a rock close to the edge of a cliff and looked down eagerly. "Ooh!" he exclaimed, his eyes wide. "We're really high up, Hikaru! Take a look!"

"Kiko, get away from there!" Hikaru said sharply. "That's a _long_ way from the bottom, and I don't want to be the one to explain to Mom and Dad that we let you fall off a cliff!"

"Let who fall off a cliff?" Izzy's voice asked from the laptop. Tina had just set it up.

"Oh, nothing," Lauren said. "So, how's it going, Dad?"

"As well as can be expected."

Hikaru almost tripped trying to get to the laptop. "Have you heard anything from my father yet?" she asked breathlessly, steeling herself for the worst.

"You have a baby sister, Hikaru," Matt told her. "Her name is Tania."

"What about my mom?"

"She's…in a coma," Matt said with some difficulty. 

Hikaru suddenly found it hard to breathe. Luckily, Kiko hadn't heard this. He was too busy playing around with Mike to notice anything.

Kinaka's eyes were wide. "Is she going to be all right?"

"They don't know."

Sora scanned the group quickly. "Lee, where's your brother?" she asked suspiciously. 

Holly answered her. "Mom, he…he got taken again."

Tai swore so badly then that Sora hit him in the back of the head.

"Sorry!" he cried, his hands up in defense. "It's just…God, first my own kid gets kidnapped—twice—and now my sister's in the hospital in a coma!"

"We're going to go look for him today," Lee added hurriedly. "We're bringing Deanna's uncle, John Lavois. He used to be a prisoner there, before Leon busted him out of it."

Tai gave Sora a lopsided grin. "That's my boy!"

"Your dad did something like that for me once," Sora explained to her daughters. 

"Well, you can tell us about it later. We've just stopped for a break," Holly said.

"Say hi to my parents for me if they call," Cleo called out.

Once Tina had the laptop closed, she sighed heavily. "I almost didn't want to say goodbye to them. I mean, this battle could be _it_. I don't know if we'll lose or not, but if we do…"

"Don't think about that," Kinaka said sharply. Those were the first words she'd said all day. 

Kiko and Mike came over then, Mike with fresh rips in the knees of his jeans, and Kiko with dirt smeared on his face. Both were grinning widely.

"Mike taught me how to play Statues," Kiko explained, as Hikaru rubbed frantically at his face with the hem of her tank top.

"I don't see how a statue could get so dirty," she commented. She was rubbing his face so hard that she was leaving red marks on his cheeks.

"OW!" he complained. "Hikaru, don't rub so hard!"

"Sorry," she muttered. "I just have a lot on my mind."

"Is it about Mommy? Is she OK?"

Hikaru sighed. "Well, Mommy is very sick," she said. "But she'll be better soon, OK? There's some good news though, Kiko! We have a baby sister!"

Kiko stood there, pondering this. Finally he said, "But I wanted a _brother_!" 

Everyone laughed. It was good to have something to laugh about again.

"Sixteen hundred new Black Domes were built today," Sabinemon cackled. "He's doing great! And his Fangmon is so much more stronger. I can't believe the Dark Amulets caused him to digivolve! This is just terrific!"

MetalDevimon nodded. "It sure is." He uncorked a fresh bottle of blood and poured it into two tall glass carafes. 

Sabinemon raised her glass. "A toast, my love," she said. "To our success, to the Black Domes, and to evil."

"Hear, hear!" MetalDevimon said, clinking his glass to hers.

"Everywhere we go," Lee sang, slightly off key.

"Everywhere we go," everyone else chorused behind her.

"People always ask us…"

"People always ask us…"

"Who we are…"

"Who we are…"

"So we tell them…"

"So we tell them…"

"We're the Digidestined!"

"We're the Digidestined!"

"Mighty Digidestined!"

  
"Mighty Digidestined!"

"And if you don't believe us…"

"And if you don't believe us…"

"We'll shout a little louder…"

"Augh! Shut up, shut up, shut up! We've been singing this song for half an hour already!" Kim shrieked, her hands pressed to her ears.

"All right," Lee laughed. "I was starting to get sick of it myself!"

"That makes two of us," Lauren added.

Tina looked around at all the sour faces and laughed. "I think that makes _all_ of us!"

Even Kinaka cracked a smile at that.

"Are we there yet?" Kiko asked.

Holly tipped her head back and stared straight at a gigantic black stone castle looming above them. "Nearly," she told her little cousin. "All we have to do is climb a little more higher, and there we are."

A little over fifteen minutes later, they reached a drawbridge. Under it, about fifty or so feet down, was a series of long, cruel spikes. Most of them were stained a rusty red. 

"Is that blood?" Jenna murmured to Cleo.

"I don't think I want to know," Cleo shuddered. "Just be careful crossing it!"

Kiko clutched Hikaru's hand so hard he nearly crushed it. "What if we fall?" he whimpered.

"Don't even think about it!"

Cautiously, they eased across the bridge. From time to time, Mike or Kiko would let out a little squeak of fear, but they got across all right. They ended up right at the threshold of the castle.

"Well, that was easy," Chris declared.

"A little too easy," Holly said, her brow furrowed. "Isn't this the part where the whole threshold collapses in on us?"

They waited a few minutes, but nothing happened.

"Let's go in, then," Kim said, pulling on the large bronze ring that served as a doorknob. 

The door didn't open.

"It's stuck," she reported. "Stuck, or locked. We should try to break it down."

Lee, Jenna, Cleo, Hikaru, Deanna, Kim, Kinaka, Lauren and Tina all kicked the door as hard as they could at the same time. It stayed shut.

"Step aside, ladies," Chris said, pushing toward the door. 

But before he could try his hand at breaking the door down, a loud yell pierced the air. Next thing they knew, Holly had kicked the door so hard that she got her foot stuck in it.

"Hey! Someone help me!" she squealed, trying to wrench her foot free.

Laughing, Lee helped her big sister out. "Kicked it hard enough, Holl?"

"Shut up," she grumbled. "At least we can try to force it open now."

With a little muscle power and a few more kicks at the door from Holly, they finally managed to break the huge wooden door down.

"I think I have a splinter in my foot," Holly complained as they crept along the hallway. The hallway was long and dank, with only half-melted candles for light. Cleo had her penlight out, but it was starting to run out of batteries.

Kiko wrinkled his nose. "It smells funny in here," he said. "Kind of like the fridge when there's a piece of rotten meat in it."

"Ew! Kiko!" Mike squealed. "That's just gross!"

"You know, he's right," Deanna agreed. She wrinkled her nose too. "Yuck. Coelamon once dragged a bone full of meat under my parents' bed. It made the whole house stink like a dead body for months!"

"That's what it smells like in here," Kinaka said softly. "A dead body."

"Kinaka," Hikaru warned, pressing her hands over Kiko's ears. 

About half an hour passed, and they were still walking along the long, winding corridor. By then, there were no more candles. The only light was from Cleo's penlight.

"Uh, Lee?" Kim piped up. "Where are we going, exactly?"

"Um…" Lee stopped walking and gazed around. "I have no idea."

Cleo's penlight chose that moment to die out completely.

"We have some guests, Masters," Leon announced over the intercom from the glass chamber he was encased in. He was seated at a control panel with numerous buttons, levers and dials, keeping the Black Domes powered. 

"Damn. It's those kids," Sabinemon hissed. "You go take care of them, MetalDevimon."

"Why me?" he asked.

"Because I say so! Now move it!" 

"Wow! What is this place?" Mike asked, his eyes wide. They had just stumbled upon a gigantic room with all sorts of glass boxes in it. Most of them held cryogenically frozen Digimon. 

"It's just sickening," Jenna said softly, pressing her hand to the glass. "Why would anyone put these Digimon on display like this?"

"I dunno," Holly said. 

Then her face went slack as she stared at the biggest glass case, right in the middle of the room.

"I don't believe it!" she cried. "Lee, look! Leon's in that thing!"

It was true. They could see him working the dials and levers of a huge control panel. His dead black eyes showed practically no life. On his chest, the Dark Amulet he wore pulsated with a shimmering green light. At his side, Fangmon was standing still like a statue, his eyes a flaming red.

"We've got to get him out of there!" Holly cried. She ran up to the glass and pounded on it. "Leon! Leon, can you hear me?"

He didn't even turn his head.

Lee came up beside her and slammed her fists on the glass. "Dammit, Bubby! Answer us!" she screamed, beating on the glass as hard as she could.

While the others tried beating on the glass to try and break it, Kinaka started to examine every inch of the glass box with her fingertips.

Lauren stopped what she was doing and watched her. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Trying to find a crack or something," she replied. 

What she eventually found was an indentation shaped like a tongue of flame.

"Is that what I think it is?" Lauren asked quietly. "It looks almost like someone took your flame pendant and pressed it into the glass."

"I thought so, too." Kinaka took off her necklace and pressed the pendant right into the indentation on the glass. It was a perfect fit.

Suddenly, the glass box started to shake, while the glass itself turned a fiery red.

"Everyone hit the dirt!" Lauren yelled, pulling Kinaka to the floor. 

Five seconds later, the glass exploded outwards. It was amazing that none of them got hit with any shards of glass.

"Nice work, Kinaka," Lauren said, picking the necklace up and handing it to Kinaka. It was still intact. 

As Kinaka finished fastening the clasp on her necklace, there came an unearthly yell from Fangmon.

"How dare you try and stop us from helping to take over the Digital World?" he yelled at them. "Fangmon digivolve to…Darkmon!"

Darkmon let out a roar. "Dark Slide!" he yelled, sending a wave of darkness at them. It crashed into the stone floor and made a huge crater.

"Oh no you don't!" Pikkimon yelled from Jenna's arms. She broke free and stood right in front of Jenna. "Pikkimon digivolve to…Ditramon!" 

Ditramon was a very large wolfish creature, with bluish-black fur streaked red. A glowing ember burned at the end of her tail.

"How did _she_ digivolve?" Minomon groaned.

"I bet she snuck some of the rations," Chris said. "None of us have eaten since breakfast. That was, let's see, eight hours ago?"

"Who cares? Kick his ass, Ditramon!" Jenna yelled. She ran past the two Digimon and right up to Leon.

"What is she doing?" Lee asked.

She was going to say more, but she was interrupted by Ditramon yelling, "Dancing Embers!" She shot a series of gigantic fireballs from the end of her tail right at Darkmon. 

Darkmon retaliated by attacking. "Jet Wing!" he cried out. Gigantic bats flew at Ditramon, but she threw fire at them and they dissolved into data.

While the others watched as the battle went on, Jenna was furiously trying to yank the Dark Amulet off of Leon, while screaming at him at the same time.

"Fight it!" she yelled, tugging hard on the chain. "I know you can! You can do it, Leon, just try! I know you're not evil! They've got you under a spell, can't you see?" Her hands began to throb incessantly with burning pain.

Leon's black eyes showed no expression while she screamed at him.

Finally, frustrated, she brought her injured hand back and WHAM! She slapped him in the face with all the strength she could muster. Her hand screamed with pain, but she didn't care.

A tiny spark appeared in his eyes, and he stood up and looked at her.

"Now you listen to me, Leon Kamiya!" she yelled. "We did _not _just come all this way just so you could sit there like a lump on a log and be ruled by a pair of evil Digimon and some _stupid_ necklace with a dumb rock on it! If you have any human left in you, _fight the evil_! Because I'm not about to believe that someone who saved my life would be so easily influenced to the darkness! FIGHT IT ALREADY!" 

She grabbed hold of his hands. "I don't believe you're evil," she repeated softly. "I don't. Come back to us, Leon, please."

She stood there with bated breath, waiting.

Leon's eyes flashed a brilliant, dazzling white, and so did his D-X. Jenna's D-X began to shine, and the light engulfed them both. 

"What's happening?" Cleo screamed. "Jenna? JENNA!"

"LEON!" Holly and Lee yelled.

They had nothing to be afraid of. While their D-X's shone, Jenna's injured hands healed up without leaving any scars, and the Dark Amulets on both Leon and Darkmon burst apart into a thousand pieces. As for Leon's eyes, they changed from obsidian black to their regular ruby red color.

The light receded, and there they were. Jenna was still holding Leon's hands tightly.

"Uh, I think maybe you oughta let go of me now," he said pointedly. 

Blushing, she released his hands and looked at her own. They no longer were red and raw, and they didn't have blisters on them either.

"That was amazing!" Lee exclaimed. "Bubby, you're back!"

"Aw, Lee," he groaned. But he didn't tell her to stop calling him Bubby.

Suddenly, the far wall cracked open. From the huge hole created, MetalDevimon burst out. His face was contorted with rage. 

"My plan was perfect!" he roared. The floor shook. "How could you let me down, boy?"

Leon's arm went around Jenna's waist. "I had help," he said coldly. "And now I see that I should have destroyed you when I first had the Dark Spiral taken off of me. Oh, yes," he said, at the startled look on MetalDevimon's face. "I remember. I remembered everything the moment the Dark Amulet was destroyed. Now I will destroy _you._ Got any last words?"

"Certainly. _Devil's Snare!_" He sent long, black ropes of fire at them.

"Get out of the way!" Jenna yelled, pushing Leon to the ground. The ropes wrapped themselves around her, and she was lifted into the air.

"Someone help me!" she screamed, as tongues of flame licked at her. They burned her clothing and singed her hair.

"Jenna!" Leon yelled. 

He shut his eyes tight. _She saved my life,_ he thought. _She saved my life, even after all the things I've done. I've got to help her!_

His D-X began to beep incessantly, as did Jenna's. Ditramon and Darkmon began to glow with a pure white light, almost as intense as the light that broke the powers of the Dark Amulets.

"What's happening now?" Holly cried.

The others watched, their mouths agape, as the first DNA digivolution began.

"Ditramon…"

"Darkmon…"

"DNA Digivolve to…"

"AVIVAMON!"

"Whoa! What is _that_ thing?" Leon cried out when he'd finally found his voice. 

Avivamon looked pretty bizarre. It looked almost like a cross between a dragon and a wolf. It had a helmet with a large crescent moon on it that went over its eyes, a wolf's head, a dragon's torso, a wolf's legs and four gigantic dragon wings. 

"I am Avivamon," the Digimon said. Strangely, it sounded like two Digimon speaking together, with Darkmon's and Ditramon's voices. "Don't worry, we'll beat him."

MetalDevimon laughed. "Fat chance!"

"You'll be eating your words. _Crescent Beam!_"

From the crescent moon on its helmet, a beam of light shot straight at MetalDevimon. It froze him right in his tracks, and he stood there like statue.

"He's frozen, everyone," Avivamon called to the little Rookies on the ground. "Help us out here!"

"All right. Starymon digivolve to…Planamon!" Planamon was twice as big as Starymon, was greenish reddish brown and had dark spots all over it like a planet.

"Usaiamon digivolve to…Bukaramon!" Bukaramon was a huge yellow sea lion with a horn on its head and yellow balls going down in a line down its back and tail.

"Auroramon digivolve to…Iceamon!" Iceamon was a cross between a big wolf and a panther. She was blue with a silver Digi-necklace around her neck and silver bracelets around her paws.

"Mikomon digivolve to…Purzinmon!" Purzimon was a lion with gleaming metal armor, with a sapphire jewel on her forehead.

"Thimon digivolve to…Thigermon!" Thigermon was a gigantic tiger that stood on two legs. He had dark yellow fur, orange eyes, green reptile skin on his snout, paws, chest and half of his tail, and three small blades at the end of his tail. 

"Minomon digivolve to…Psymon!" Psymon became a large sphere with arms like Darkmon's, a longer tail, and a white stripe of fur down his back. He had large bat wings and a single red eye. His fur grew thicker and covered his whole body.

"Syramon digivolve to…Wolfmon!" Wolfmon was a large yellow wolf with a white furry mane and red stripes across his back. His legs were black and his belly was white.

"Rubymon digivolve to…Faeradramon!" Faeradramon was a huge red dragon with fairy-like wings.

"Mousiemon digivolve to…Kimmimon!" Kimmimon was a black, sleek panther-like creature with long sharp claws.

"Tyumon digivolve to…Kenkamon!" Kenkamon was a metal samurai with a gold helmet. He had a long silver sword with rubies on the hilt.

"Empramon digivolve to…Spartimon!" Spartimon looked just like a Spartan soldier, except he had a metal face guard and two red antennae-like things sticking out of his helmet.

"Donamon digivolve to…Entrancedmon!" Entrancedmon was a big yellow, blue and purple firebird with a metal band around its ankle. On its chest was a thick chain with a gigantic ruby on it that glowed. 

All of them watched as their Digimon also DNA Digivolved.

Hikaru's Purzinmon and Chris's Psymon became Setramon, a black metal lion with bat-like wings and a single blue eye in the middle of its forehead.

Kim's Entrancedmon and Lee's Planamon became Ilandramon, a cherubim with golden wings and ruby-like eyes glowing all around it. (For those of you who have never read "A Wind In the Door", a cherubim is a big round thing with lots of wings and eyes on it.)

Kiko's Spartimon and Mike's Kenkamon became Tsukimon, an angel with a sword and a long, white robe. His face was made completely out of metal, and so were his wings.

Holly's Wolfmon and Tina's Faeradramon became Minamimon, an ice-blue wolf with dragon wings and scales all over its body. At its sides were two immense cannons. 

Deanna's Thigermon and Cleo's Kimmimon became Coeurimon, a red and black panther that stood on two legs. It had a metal helmet that went over its eyes.

Lauren's Bukaramon and Kinaka's Iceamon became Pandoramon. She wore a ragged silver dress stained with red at the hem, a chain-mail necklace that looked almost like a breastplate, and had a silver helmet that went over her eyes. On the top of the helmet were three sharp spikes tipped with red. Her skin was a pale, shimmery blue, and on a pouch at her side was an ornate box decked out in gems.

Kiko and Mike began to jump up and down and hug eachother. "Those are _our_ Digmon! They're partners!" Mike squealed.

Chris and Hikaru were just standing there with their mouths open. "Huh? How come _we're_ partners?" they wondered aloud.

Lauren and Kinaka looked at eachother and collapsed to the floor, laughing.

Deanna looked over at Cleo, who simply said, "Don't look at me. I don't get it either."

Holly and Tina were busy commenting on how cool their partner Digimon was.

"That is _so cool_!" Lee said. Kim nodded her head.

As for Leon and Jenna, they just stood their with smiles on their faces as the seven DNA Digimon began to wipe the floor with MetalDevimon.

"Crescent Beam!" Avivamon cried. The crescent moon-shaped beam hit him again.

"Seraph Flame!" Ilandramon called out. Its wings began to beat rapidly, and green fire shot out of each of its eyes. 

"Aerial Bomb!" Setramon yelled, flying high into the air and dropping a green fireball onto MetalDevimon's head.

"Ice Jet Cannon!" Minamimon yelled. Blasts of silvery blue ice shot from its cannons.

"Love Storm!" Coeurimon shouted. It spun around and around, and created a red swirling vortex that almost bowled MetalDevimon right over.

"Light Speed!" Tsukimon yelled. It swished its sword through the air, and a beam of light hurtled into MetalDevimon's chest.

Pandoramon saved the best for last. "Spirit's Wrath!" she shouted, opening the box at her side. 

All at once, a whole barrage of spirits came out of the box. They all seemed to resemble Digimon. They shot straight at MetalDevimon and knocked him down, and began to eat away at him.

"AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH! NOOOOOOOOO!" MetalDevimon screamed. But it was no use. He was slowly beginning to dissolve into data. 

"You won't get away with this, Digidestined!" he swore as the last bits of him exploded into nothing.

Holly let out her breath. She hadn't even realized she was holding it. 

"Whoa! Was that cool or what?" Kinaka trilled.

Pandoramon whistled once, high and shrill. All of the spirits of the Digimon came back into the box…except for one. This one went right up to Deanna's uncle and stood before him.

"Hello, John," it said.

John trembled all over. "K-Ki-Kibomon?" he said quietly. "Is that you?"

"John, you must go back home to your wife," the shadowy form of Kibomon said. "Catherine needs you." 

With that, he flew back to Pandoramon and straight into her box.

As if that whole thing wasn't weird enough, the Digimon began to separate from their shared bodies and de-digivolve back to the Rookie level. They all ran back to their human partners, who promptly swept them up into big hugs.   


"You were awesome, Pikkimon!" Jenna told her little yellow mouse-like Digimon. "I don't get it, though. How come you digivolved with Leon's Digimon?"

Pikkimon shrugged. "If I knew, I would tell you."

Once they'd all finished hugging, they stood up. 

"We ought to leave now," Lee said. "Who knows, that freaky Sabinemon chick might be hanging around. And we've just been battling with her partner, so we should hightail it out of here."

Everyone was all too happy to agree. They picked up their tired Digimon and began to leave.

"Wait!" Leon said before they left. He ran to a case near where the control panel used to be and opened it. Inside were fourteen eggs shaped…well, strangely. 

"Come over here!" he told them. "These things are called Digi-Eggs, but they're not the kind that hatch. They can help our Digimon digivolve. I overheard Sabinemon telling MetalDevimon about them. Maybe if we take them out of here, these things can help us!"

They didn't even need to go over to the case. All at once, each egg lifted off the shelf it was resting on and floated over to each of the Digidestined.

Kinaka examined hers. "I don't get this symbol," she complained. There was a strange insignia on it that she had never seen before. Her egg was shaped like a flip-flop sandal with a bent silver and gold nail in it.

"We'll worry about them later," Lee said, putting her star-shaped egg into her sports bag. "Let's just go."

As the kids walked out of the room, Sabinemon watched through her telescope.

"Those little brats," she hissed. 

Then she suddenly caught sight of Kinaka, who was carrying Auroramon in her knapsack and playing with her necklace. Sabinemon gave a choked cry and pulled her face away from the telescope.

"I don't believe it," she said hoarsely. "After six years…it can't be…that's not Kinaka, is it? Is she?"

She looked again. But there was no mistaking her. 

There, walking out of the castle, was Kinaka. Sabinemon's daughter.


	8. The Mother I Never Had

Now we're onto something…Ahem __

Now we're onto something…Ahem. Even though I don't own Digimon, I am going to write about it. So there.

****

Next Generation

…And So It Begins (Again)

CHAPTER EIGHT: THE MOTHER I NEVER HAD

"Just look at them," Kinaka snorted. She pointed ahead to Jenna and Leon, and then to Hikaru and Chris. "They're DNA partners, and they don't seem to notice how close they're getting. Hello, am I the only one who had my eyes open while Jenna was trying to knock some sense into Leon?"

Lauren snickered. "They're so cute, it's actually funny."

"Hear that?" Kim said to Lee. "They're actually getting along! OK, who are you two and what did you do with our friends?"

Both girls laughed. "I don't know," Lauren chortled. "I guess being her DNA partner means I just have to get along with Kina."

Cleo stopped dead in her tracks. "Whuh-oh!" she cried out. "Lauren, hit the dirt! You called her Kina!"

"You idiot, you've killed us all!" Tina added, shielding her face with her hands.

Kinaka just smiled serenely. "I don't mind it," she said simply. "But the rest of you had better not call me Kina, or else!"

Chris's jaw dropped so fast it almost shattered on the ground.

Sabinemon watched Kinaka's every move through the telescope. _I don't believe it. Why didn't I recognize her before?_ she wondered. _I should have seen it. That flame pendant…_

****

~flashback~

"Kina, honey! Time for bed, birthday girl," Sabrina Ishida called out.

"Aw, Momma, I hate that name! Don't call me Kina anymore!" seven-year-old Kinaka groaned, stomping off to the bathroom to brush her teeth. 

Sabrina smiled. Her little girl had no idea her mother was a Virus-type Digimon, married to a Digidestined. Kinaka didn't even know what a Digidestined or a Digimon was. 

Matt came up behind her and kissed her on the cheek. "She's growing up," he said. "I can't believe it."

"Well, she is seven" Sabrina reminded him. "It was so nice of you to come home for her birthday."

Matt grinned sheepishly. "I'm trying to get away from the shuttle for a while. I've got a vacation coming up…maybe we'll go to the country for the summer. She'd love it. But it kinda has a computer shortage, so maybe she wouldn't."

Kinaka came out of the bathroom five minutes later, toothpaste still on her face. "I'm ready, Mom."

"Go wash your face first, OK?" she told Kinaka. "I've got something for you."

"Another present?" Matt asked her quietly. "She's going to be spoiled rotten at this rate!"

Sabrina ignored him and went to their room. In her jewelry box was small package. She had had a pair of silver earrings made just for Kinaka, to match the silver flame necklace she had given her at age three. It had been the only thing she could think to leave her daughter before she left her forever.

The little girl was sitting on her bed when Sabrina came in to kiss her goodnight. "Hi, Momma," she greeted her.

"Kina, this is for you," Sabrina said, handing her the package. 

Once Kinaka had it open, her eyes went wide. "This is for me?" she squeaked. "Momma, they're so pretty!"

"I know," she said. "I want you to have them. You're a big girl, and I know you'll take good care of them. See, they go with the necklace I gave you when you were little."

Kinaka played with the chain around her neck. "Thank you," she said softly, hugging her mother around the middle.

"You're quite welcome, darling." 

Sabrina kissed her goodnight and left the room. She went into her bedroom, where Matt was waiting.

"Did she like her present?" he asked.

"Uh-huh." She slipped under the quilt and turned off the light.

"It's strange, Sabrina," he said. "You really loved that necklace you gave her a while back. Why'd you give it to her?"

Sabrina smiled, a smile he couldn't see in the darkness. "I just thought she should have it, that's all."

Later that night, at exactly the stroke of midnight, she got out of bed and went down the hall to Kinaka's room. She stood in the open door, gazing at her daughter. The moonlight spilling in from the window illuminated her, striking the flame pendant and making it shimmer with silver light.

"If there's one thing I'll miss about this world, it will be you, Kinaka," she said softly. 

Then she turned, and left the house forever.

~end flashback~

The police had found the body of Sabrina O'Reilley Ishida in a forest exactly a year later, on Kinaka's eighth birthday. But it was just Sabinemon's human body that had died. She had discarded her human form and taken her true form once again, like her sister Arukenimon and her brother Mummymon. 

Sabinemon tore her eyes away from Kinaka long enough to rub her temples. She had a massive headache happening. Not only had her plans blown up in her face, so had the Black Domes. _And_ her husband, MetalDevimon. 

TK suddenly felt Kari's fingers tighten around his hand.

"Hey! I think she's waking up!" he cried. "Someone get the doctor!"

Kari's eyelids flickered open, and she smiled warmly at her husband. "I've got good news," she said. "The kids are OK."

"Huh?" he said. Out of all the things he thought she'd say upon awakening, this definitely had to be the last thing he expected her to say.

"Hikaru and Kiko. They're just fine," she continued.

"How do you know, Kari?" he asked her. "You've been in a coma for three days."

She smiled. "I just know, TK. They're all right. They beat MetalDevimon by DNA digivolution. And guess what? Hikaru's DNA partner is Cody's son! Isn't that funny?"

TK just gaped at her.

The next evening, they arrived at the same cave that they'd stayed in before they'd climbed up the mountain. 

"Ah, cave sweet cave!" Lee cried, stepping inside. "I never thought I'd miss this place, but it feels so nice and safe in here."

"But it's colder than Siberia," Cleo commented, shivering. "Can't we do something about that?"

"Sure can," Fangmon grinned with his big teeth. "_Dino Breath!_" Flames shot out of his mouth and ignited on the charred fire pit they'd used before.

Lauren immediately sat down and started to set up the laptop. Within minutes, they were talking with their parents.

"Hi, Mom!" Jenna called out to Yolei. "How come you guys are back from the hospital?"

"Is my mom back yet?" Kiko asked hopefully.

"We've got so much to tell you!" Tina yelled over the din of everyone chattering at once. 

Izzy held up his hands. "Whoa, kids! One at a time!" he laughed. "Tina, what did you say?"

"We've got so much to tell you," she repeated. "Our Digimon did the coolest thing yesterday, during our fight with MetalDevimon! They went together into pairs and digivolved together, something like—" 

"DNA digivolving?" Davis cut in.

"Er, yeah," Kim said, her brow furrowed. "How'd you know, Dad?"

Cody grinned at her. "Our Digimon used to do the same thing."

Cleo smacked herself in the forehead. "Duh! I had it all written down!" she cried, taking out her notebook and checking it. "Yup. I remember when Hikaru and Kiko's mom told us all about it."

"Speaking of my mom, how is she?" Hikaru asked.

"We haven't heard anything yet," Tai told her. "But your dad called a while ago and said that he's going to be bringing Tania here tomorrow night, so you and Kiko can see her."

The phone rang in the background. Davis's sister Jun broke away from the group and went to go answer it. 

Sora pushed her way to the screen. The moment she laid eyes on Leon, she started to cry.

"Leon," she sobbed, "I thought that this time, you might never come back! What happened?"

"Weren't you listening, Sora? A little thing called DNA digivolving happened," Tai told her.

"Oh, yeah. That's right."

"We kicked butt!" Mike told the adults. "It was so cool, Mom! You should have seen it!"

Mimi smiled at her little boy. "I wish I could have."

Jun came back then, with a huge smile on her face. "Matt, your brother just called. He said to tell you to tell Hikaru and Kiko that their mom just woke up from her coma."

Hikaru cried out with joy and hugged the closest person to her. Which happened to be Chris. 

Kiko stared at his sister. "Mommy was in a coma? Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded.

Hikaru went red, pulled away from Chris and went over to her little brother. "I didn't want to scare you," she told him. "I didn't want you to be upset. That's why I didn't tell you."

They talked with the adults for a little while longer, but eventually, exhaustion won over. 

"We'll talk tomorrow," Lee told her parents, stifling a yawn. "See you then."

Tina closed the lid of the laptop and yawned loudly. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I need to sleep!" she said wearily. 

Everyone else quickly agreed, seeing as they were heading back to Server bright and early the next morning. 

"Thank you so much for getting rid of MetalDevimon for us!" Elecmon thanked the Digidestined at the Primary Village. All the little hatchling Digimon in their bassinets squeaked out their thanks as well.

"Heck, it was no problem," Minomon said. 

"You're welcome to come back to visit us any time," Unimon said.   
  
"Yeah, well, we might be coming back later to finish Sabinemon off," Jenna told him. 

Ogremon snorted. "Didn't you hear? She packed up and left the island. Apparently she's gone to look for her daughter."

"She has a daughter?" John asked. "I never knew. How do you know she's gone to look for her daughter?"

Ogremon just shrugged. "We Digimon have a way of knowing things. Plus her former slaves told us."

"Well, I just hope she hasn't gone to Server," John sighed. He hadn't seen Catherine in almost four years, and he'd be damned if he was never going to see her again.

Roanemon and Whamon brought them to Server as fast as they could.

"We've heard that Sabinemon is headed for Server, and she might attack your family, Dee," Roanemon told Deanna. "It's best that we try and beat her there."

As it was, they didn't get there fast enough.

The first thing they saw when they got there, two days later, was the stump that hid the entrance to the house. It was completely tipped over, exposing the entrance.

"Oh my God," Deanna moaned, going down the slide. 

"Dee, wait for me!" John and Thimon cried out. They ran after her and went down the slide too.

The other Digidestined and their Digimon went down too, to find Deanna, John and Thimon racing madly around the house. It looked like a tsunami hit it! Pieces of furniture were overturned, the television screen was smashed, flowerpots spilled onto the floor and bits of feathers and fur were everywhere. There was even a huge stain of florescent purple blood on the carpet.

"It looks almost like Dee's family's Digimon partners tried to fight something off…and lost," Holly said weakly. 

Tears trickled down Deanna's cheeks. "Something really bad happened to them, I just know it!" she wailed. Cleo came up to her and put her arms around her consolingly.

"It's going to be all right," Cleo reassured her, while Deanna cried into her shoulder. "I'm sure of it. Maybe they're somewhere else. Maybe they went to one of those continents your mom told us about."

"Yeah, but Gennai never really gave us a proper geography lesson of this world," Deanna sniffled. "They wouldn't know where to go."

Cleo handed her a tissue. "Here. Maybe they went to File Island."

Actually, they hadn't. 

A small voice hissed from the entrance, "Hey! Dee! Over here!" 

Deanna finished blowing her nose and gazed around. "Who's there?" she called out. 

Her little sister Rachael stepped into the living room, and her eyes nearly popped out of her head. "Uncle John! I—I thought you were—"

"I know," John said heavily. "Listen, Rachie, where is the rest of your family?"

"They're all at Gennai's house," she said. "Mom sent me over to see if you guys were here. She wanted me to bring you all back to his house. She's been cleaning it up for three days, ever since the house got attacked by Sabinemon."

"So she _was_ here," Kiko murmured.

Deanna looked at the patch of purple blood on the floor. "Did Yukamon get hurt?" she asked. "Or Coelamon, or Floramon?"

Rachael's bright green eyes clouded over. "They got hurt pretty bad," she said quietly. "Aunt Cat extracted as much pollen as she could from Floramon to help make them better, but it's not helping much."

Kinaka's eyes narrowed almost into slits. "I can't believe she did this!" she burst out. "How did Sabinemon end up so evil?"

"Remember how I used to think she was good?" Jenna added. "I don't think that now. After what she did to Leon, I'm pretty much inclined to think that she's pure evil, and that's all there is to it."

"Why did she come _here_?" Deanna asked.

Rachael shrugged. "I don't know. Look, Dee, I don't know about you, but I want to get out of here in case Sabinemon comes back. Let's go."

Catherine's blue eyes spilled over with tears the moment she saw her husband.

"John!" she cried out, running up to him. He caught her in his arms, and held her tightly while she sobbed into his chest, her whole body shaking.

"My Catherine," he said, kissing the top of her head. "Oh, darling, I missed you so much!"

"What happened, John? How…why…who…"

He smiled softly. "It's a long story," he told her. 

She lifted her face and stared up at him. "It's so good to have you back," she said in a near whisper. She stood on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss. 

Deanna grinned sideways at her parents, who were looking just as shocked as Catherine was.

Gennai's house was underwater, and the way to get in was to send a water or ice-type Digimon into the water. After Kinaka got Auroramon to go in, the water parted to reveal a huge stone staircase. The moment they were all inside, the waters crashed together. 

Kiko looked around him. Through the windows, he could see all sorts of fish swimming about. "Check it out, Hikaru!" he cried out, running to the nearest window and pressing his face against the glass. "It's better than being at the aquarium!"

Chris looked out, too. "That's a perch," he said, his brow furrowed. "Aren't those supposed to be freshwater fish?" **_(A.N.: I have no clue. Don't ask me!)_**

"Uh…" Leon stared out the window. "Maybe. I have no clue."

Gwen hugged Deanna. "I didn't think you would come home," she said. "Then, when we were attacked…"

"Mom, it's OK!" Deanna protested, squirming out of her mother's grasp. "We're all right. But what about you? What happened at the house?"

Brian looked sad. "Well, Dee," he said, "Sabinemon figured out for herself where we were hiding out. She attacked us in the middle of the night, when we were all asleep. Coelamon, Floramon and Yukamon tried to stop her, but…they…" He stopped.

"Go on, Dad," Deanna said gently.

Catherine took over where he left off. "My Floramon attacked her while she was ripping apart the living room," she said. "But Sabinemon fought her off. The Coelamon and Yukamon came and tried to fight her. We came into the room just as she threw them both off. She gave them some pretty bad injuries. If you happened to see a large pool of blood on the living room carpet…" She swallowed hard. "That was from Yukamon."

"How did you escape?" Mike asked curiously.

"Sabinemon left right after she attacked," Gwen replied. "She was screaming like a madwoman, yelling, 'Where is she?' and yelling something about a daughter."

"Geez, I'd hate to be her child," Kinaka commented. "I don't think she'd be the best mother. Now, _my_ mother was nice. She was pretty much she sweetest woman you could find, and she died." Her voice trembled a bit. 

"I don't think anyone in the Digital World knew that she had a daughter," Rachael said. "We would have heard something about it, seeing as we actually live here."

"It doesn't matter right now!" Gwen said sharply. "Dee, why don't you give your friends the grand tour? You came over here more than any of us ever did."

Deep in the forest, close to the site where the new Digidestined had arrived eleven days ago, Sabinemon was resting for a while. She'd been searching for Kinaka all day. 

__

I don't understand. Why can't I find her? she wondered. _It would be a whole lot easier if MetalDevimon was still around. _

Sabinemon hadn't seen Kinaka for six years. But in those six years, she had never stopped wondering about her daughter. She wouldn't exactly call her feelings for Kinaka "love", but she did feel a curious affinity with the girl. It could be because she was actually part Data and part Virus, and then part human to boot.

Nearly five hundred years before, she and her siblings had had a terrible fight. Arukenimon, Mummymon and Etemon had all been born of the darkness. But she had been the spawn of LadyDevimon and Makaramon, a good and noble Digimon who was much like TK Takaishi's Angemon. All her life, she had been battling the good and evil, never knowing which was her legacy. Then came the fight that changed her life. Her own family cast her out of the Digital World, after she spent a century being tortured into human form, in the Lake of Fire on the continent of Torii. 

She remembered what her life was like as a human. When she arrived on Earth, she had the body of a sixteen-year-old girl. She remembered the first day of high school, the day she met Matt Ishida, famous rock star in high school, famous astronaut at age twenty-five. He had married another woman before he married her, but his first wife had been dead for a year when they got married. She remembered all of Kinaka's life as a baby, then as a little child. She treasured those memories, the memories that felt like the best part of her.

But after six years of her marriage to Matt, MetalDevimon came to call. He had been betrothed to her at their births six thousand years in the past, and he had come to claim her. Of course, she had pleaded to stay on Earth where she was plenty happy already, but the promises of having the power of the dark side was enough for her to decide to cross over to the darkness. 

But was she fully evil?

__

I am! she reassured herself. _Once I find Kinaka, I will do what I should have done years ago: I will take my daughter and make her one with the dark, as I am! Then I will never lose her again._

And I know the perfect place to do the blessing.

Deanna finished the tour of Gennai's large underwater house with her favourite room: the library.

"Aw, I hate libraries," Holly groaned. "You always have to be so…quiet."

"Oh, but this is a really good library," Deanna grinned, her eyes twinkling. "Gennai showed me some books on things that humans won't even invent for a couple millennia. Go on, check it out!" she said when everyone stood around, wondering where to start browsing.

Kiko immediately went over to a section of books marked "The Great Outdoors". He opened one book with a picture of a boy playing soccer, and a soccer ball flew out and nearly hit him in the face!

"Hey!" he cried out, slamming the book shut. 

Hikaru laughed. "I wouldn't stay in that section if I were you, Kiko!"

Lauren and Cleo browsed around in a section with computer manuals. 

Lee, Holly, Chris, Hikaru, Jenna and Leon went to a whole section on N64, Gameboy and PS2 games. 

Mike and Kiko checked out "As Seen on TV", a whole section on television shows in the Digital World and Earth.

Kinaka sat in a big, cushy armchair, reading a large book on the paranormal and the psychic realm. When Lauren gave her a strange look, she said, "What? You've never heard of Nostradamus?"

Deanna immediately found her favourite section, "Inventions Here that Earthlings are Probably Never Going to Invent" and showed Kim all the devices that had been cooked up in recent Digi-years.

It was Tina who found the most interesting book. She never usually read books, so she decided she'd find a book, read whatever it was, and if she didn't like it, she would find a new one. So she went down one of the endless rows of books, and after a long time, selected a red book with a leather cover. 

It didn't budge from the shelf. 

"Hey! Deanna, one of the books is stuck!" she yelled, pulling harder. 

This time, the book came about halfway out. There came a rumbling sound from the shelf, and suddenly, the whole thing just flipped right around and deposited Tina and Rubymon into a dark space behind the shelves. 

"Tina! Tina, where are you?" Mike called out from somewhere on the other side of the shelf. 

"I'm behind the bookcase!" she yelled. "I think I'm in some sort of a secret room or something! Help me out!"

"We can't help you if we don't even know how you got there!" Lauren's exasperated voice said. "How did you get there?"

Tina called back, "I pulled on this red leather book, and it only came halfway out. I guess it was the key to this room or something."

Rubymon tugged her hand. "I can't see in here," she complained. "I'm lighting a fire. Don't worry, I'm just going to keep it in a sort of ball in front of us until the others can get us out of here."

She spat a huge mouthful of flames into the air. They hung there, lighting up the whole dark space.

Tina looked around. There wasn't much there, except a table with a map on it…

Wait a sec. A map? Was that a map of the Digital World?

She walked over to the table, followed by Rubymon's flames. There was a large, yellowed map with bright drawings of landforms and lakes and so forth. 

"Keep your flames well back," she warned her Digimon. "I'm going to take this thing out of here."

Sabinemon tossed Joe Kido's half-conscious Gomamon into the water. Almost immediately, the waters shifted and pulled apart, to reveal the steps leading to Gennai's house. 

She smirked. "Get out of the water, you stupid thing," she growled, pulling his back out and tossing him aside like a rag doll. 

__

This was where Kinaka was. She just knew it.

"On three," Lee said. "One…two…"

The bookcase suddenly shifted, and Tina and Rubymon slid out from behind it. "Ta da!" Tina cried, thrusting the map at Lee. "I think you'll find this quite interesting."

Lee unrolled the map and studied it. "Is this what I think it is?" she asked quietly. 

"Well, it's a map of this crazy world. Is that what you were thinking?" Tina said, grinning.

Before they even had a chance to study it, there was a loud crashing sound from the floor above.

"Uh-oh," Kinaka said. "That didn't sound right."

There were more crashes, followed by a cry of, "Where is she? Where have you hidden her? If you don't tell me, this time I won't be so benevolent!"

"That's Sabinemon!" Mike yelled. 

"Come on!" Jenna cried out, running for the stairs. 

When they all got to the second floor, they were greeted with chaos. John was trying to beat Sabinemon away from Catherine and Lucas with a chair, but it wasn't exactly working. Gwen, Brian and Rachael were also trying to stop her, but that wasn't working either. 

"Where is Kinaka?" Sabinemon demanded them. "This is your last chance, humans! Tell me where she is or else!" 

"Why?" Catherine sobbed. "Why do you want that girl?"

Kinaka stepped forward, with Auroramon by her side, ready to attack. "Stop!" she yelled. "Stop terrorising these people! If it's me you want, then leave them be!"

Sabinemon stopped what she was doing. "Hello, Kina darling," she purred. "So nice to see you again."

Kinaka's eyes widened. "What did you just call me?" she asked in a deadly quiet voice. 

Suddenly, Sabinemon shifted forms. One second, she was herself. The next, she was a pretty brown-haired, brown-eyed woman. She walked towards Kinaka, who reeled back in utter shock.

"No," she whispered brokenly. She stepped back and stared at Sabinemon's new form. "You can't be. You _aren't_. It's not possible! She died six years ago, when I was just a little girl!"

"Oh, but I am," Sabinemon said in a soft voice much unlike her own. "Don't you remember me, Kina? Don't you remember how I used to tuck you in at night, and sing that song you liked the best?" She reached a hand out toward her.

Auroramon jumped forward. "I'll digivolve and kick your evil butt if you dare touch her!"

Sabinemon laughed. "I don't think you will. Come on, Kina, aren't you going to say hello to me? After all, I haven't seen you since you were seven. Come and give your mother a big hug and a kiss."

Kinaka knocked her hand away and screamed in terror. And she didn't even stop screaming when Sabinemon turned and left the house, her head hung in defeat.


	9. Her Mother's Child

Hopelight: Yada, yada, yada __

Hopelight: Yada, yada, yada. I wish I could say I own Digimon but I don't. It's kinda a waste of time doing these disclaimers, but it's fun in a way.

Katana: All right, we've heard enough from you for today.

Hopelight: Oh, shut up and let me write the fic!

****

Next Generation

…And So It Begins (Again)

CHAPTER NINE: HER MOTHER'S CHILD

Kinaka finally stopped screaming after a long, long time. She dropped to the floor, sobbing. Auroramon climbed into her lap and hugged her, while Kinaka's tears dripped all over the little Digimon's silvery blue fur.

Everyone's eyes were practically bulging out of their heads. 

"OK," Lee said, sounding shocked and scared at the same time. "That was more than strange. That was freaky."

"Kinaka's part Digimon?" Cleo said quietly. 

"That whole thing was like a twisted episode of Jerry Springer," Chris commented.

"Or try one of those sappy phone commercials, but from another galaxy!" Kim added.

The others were commenting on the whole spectacle in much the same way. While they conversed, Kinaka sat on the floor, still crying her heart out.

Lauren dropped to the floor next to her and hugged her. "It's OK, Kina," she soothed her. "Don't be upset."

"How could I not be?" Kinaka screamed at her. "That…that _thing _was my _mother_! Sabinemon, an evil Digimon who almost killed us all, is my mother! I'm a part Virus Digimon, for crying out loud! You expect me _not_ to be upset? Where the hell are your brains today?"

Hikaru also approached her cousin. "It doesn't matter what you are, Kinaka, it's who you choose to be. I'm guessing she chose her own path to evil. Just because she is what she is, doesn't mean you are like her."

"And just think, you might be the one to bring her down," Lauren added. "In fact, you might be the only one who _can._"

Kinaka wiped her eyes and tried to smile, but failed miserably. "Maybe you're right," she said. 

__

Why? Why didn't I just grab her and run? Sabinemon thought bitterly. _She was right there…_

She picked up a large stone and heaved it as hard as she could into the Lake of Fire. It landed with barely a splash as the hot flames boiled around it. She hadn't thrown it far; if she would have morphed back from her human form, she would have probably tossed it right over the Lake. 

__

I could have made her into what I am now, if I would have just taken her! It's this accursed human form. Why must I be cursed with human weaknesses? Why?

Kinaka's voice was trembling as she faced her father. Her face was chalk-white. "Why didn't you ever tell me that Sabinemon was my mother?" she demanded.

Matt looked at her like she'd suddenly gone nuts. "Your…your mother?" he finally managed to say after a long while.

"Yes, my mother," she said bitterly. "Thanks so much for telling me I'm part Virus Digimon, Dad. Thanks a lot." With that, she swept out of the room, with Auroramon running after her.

Matt looked stunned. "Oh my God," he said. 

Tai looked shocked and angry. "You married an evil Digimon?" he asked. "Whoa. Matt, how could you?"

"It's not like I knew!" Matt fumed, walking away.

"Uncle Matt!" Hikaru cried out.

"Don't mind him," Kari told her daughter, smiling. "Look, I brought your little sister with me!" She held up Tania for Hikaru and Kiko to see.

Kiko was bouncing up and down on his toes. "Ooh! Look, Hikaru, she looks kinda like you!" he exclaimed.

Hikaru pressed her hand to the laptop, ignoring Lauren's sharp elbow for smudging the screen. Kari brought Tania's tiny hand to the screen. For an instant, the two sisters had made a connection, even though they were in two different worlds at the moment. 

Then Hikaru brought her hand away and said, "Hi, Tania. I'm your big sister."

"She's so cute, Aunt Kari!" Holly trilled, gazing at her baby cousin. 

"Right, Bubby?" Lee asked, elbowing him sharply.

"Uh, yeah. Cute," he said, rubbing his side. "Lee, did anyone ever tell you that little girls should be seen and not heard, and should _not _hurt their big brothers who are five years older and can crush them like bugs?"

Lee grinned. "Actually, no. I thought there was such thing as freedom, you big knucklehead! And besides, you're only four years, three months and seventeen days older than me."

Everyone else just ignored them.

Tina unrolled the map she had found and held it up. "Dad, have you ever seen this before?" she asked. 

Izzy's dark eyes nearly popped out of his head.

**__**

~flashback~

"Prodigious!" ten-year-old Izzy trilled as Gennai led him into the room behind the bookcase. "This is fantastic!"

The old man smiled and held his lantern higher, so the child prodigy could see the dark room properly. He had to show the boy something that could help the Digidestined during their upcoming battles. And there was a long story to be told, too, and it was best that Izzy hear it. Perhaps the boy could take this information and formulate a strategy or two.

"I have to show you something, Izzy," he said, leading him to a table. He unrolled the map he had been working on for the past sixty thousand years and spread it out on the table.

"Oh, my…" Izzy's breath caught in his throat. There on the table was a complete and detailed map of the Digital World.

"Quite the geography lesson, right, Izzy?" Gennai grinned. "I'm also mixing in a bit of a history lesson."

Izzy finally found his voice. "Um, it should be no problem for me to understand. Tell me about these landforms, and their histories." 

Gennai poked various parts of the map with a pen as he spoke. "This continent here is Torii," he said. "It used to be a frozen wasteland, but now it's a region where there is many tropical rainforests. And this is Kai. During the Digital Bronze Age, it was a bustling continent, full of buildings and whatnot. When Myotismon came around, he reduced the cities to ruins. And here is Server. Now as you can see, on the west coast here is File Island, but we have an island to the south about twice its perimeter called Corona Island. It is said that there are sun-worshipping Digimon who dwell there, and that is also supposedly where all Virus Digimon are born."

"But I thought that Primary Village was where all the Digimon get born," Izzy mused. 

"Data and Vaccine types are always born in Primary Village, never Virus types."

"Then who takes care of the Virus Digimon hatchlings?"

"There is a pair of Digimon there that have ruled the island almost since the beginning of the Digital World, some four hundred billion years ago. Their names are Kildramon and Sibylmon. Over time, they have given birth to many thousands of evil Digimon. But they had thirteen children who are very powerful, some of whom you have met and some that you will meet soon. Their children were Devimon, Etemon, Myotismon, MetalSeadramon, Puppetmon, Machinedramon, LadyDevimon, Piedmon, Apocalymon, Sabinemon, Arukenimon, Mummymon and Wrathmon. Do you understand what I'm saying so far?"

Izzy nodded. "Go on."

"Anyway, seeing as you have already destroyed two of their children, they are pretty furious," Gennai continued. "One sixth of their line is demolished. They will send the rest of their children out soon, if Myotismon fails to destroy you. I don't know who they will be, but I know that you children are ready for them. Think you can handle it?"

Izzy grinned. "Yup. Any time, Gennai."

"Good." Gennai rolled the map up. "I made a copy of the map for you on your laptop. It's just in case you need it, like your Digimon Analyser. OK?"  


"OK."

"All right then. Back to bed with you, my boy."

~end flashback~

"WHAT?" Tina cried out when her dad finished telling his story. "You mean to say that there's a map on the laptop already?"

Izzy held up his hands. "Whoa! Tina, the map got deleted almost thirty years ago! When we left the Digital World, it got erased, I guess because Gennai thought we were safe."

"How come you never told us?" Mimi complained.

Izzy got very red in the face. "I didn't think any of you would understand," he replied. "Gennai explained it to me like I was an adult and not a child."

"Oh, well, I wouldn't have understood it. I was basically brainless then," Tai grinned. 

"No kidding," Matt muttered under his breath.

"At any rate, we'll be able to use it, and…what the heck?" Lauren squeaked, pointing at the open map. 

On the map, there were a bunch of crimson dots that scattered around the various land masses. They moved constantly, in and out of water and over land. 

"What are those?" Lauren asked, her voice in a whispered hush.

Cleo peered at the map. "Well, they look like a space view of herds migrating or something," she said. "They all seem to be moving in one direction, see?" She traced their path on the map with her index finger.

One large dot remained in the far reaches of Torii. Next to the dot were the words "Lake of Fire". 

"Lake of Fire?" Kiko asked, his brow furrowed. "I don't think that would make a nice beach."

"Are you kidding? You'd get roasted!" Mike cried. 

"No wonder they're all going away from it," Kim added.

"Wait a sec." Jenna stepped close to the map, brought her face so close her nose was brushing the paper, and nodded.

"What is it?" Leon asked.

Jenna looked pleased with herself. "Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines! We're off to Torii to visit the Wicked Witch of the West herself."

Lee looked at her. "How do you know that's Sabinemon?"

"Think about it. Who else would scare everyone away?"

"Good point."

"Kinaka!" Lauren called out. "Get your butt back in here!"

Kinaka came back into the room. She had obviously been listening at the door. "I'll come, but when we fight my mother, I get dibs on the hit that will finish her off."

Gwen stopped them all from leaving. "Wait, kids!" she said. "What if Sabinemon comes back while you're gone?"

In reply, Deanna whipped out her D-X. 

"Tina, I remember you telling me that when you came here two weeks ago, you came through using your D-X's. Lauren, open the laptop for me."

Once the laptop was open, the Digi-Port came onto the screen. It blinked for a second, before the green light that meant it was open flicked on.

"What _is_ that?" John gasped.

Catherine's eyes lit up. "A Digi-Port!" she exclaimed. "TK and Tai opened one in France when I was just a little girl! I remember now. Oh," she said, catching on. "Dee, are you sending us back to Earth?"

Rachael's eyes widened. "Mom, can't we get packed first?" she asked.

Gwen looked resolute. "Rachie, we don't have anything worth taking. All we need is eachother."

Rachael nodded. "All right, mom."

"Wait! Our Digimon!" Catherine cried out. She ran through a door and came back minutes later with Yukamon, Coelamon and Floramon.

"Hey, Dee, are you coming too?" Rachael asked.

Deanna looked surprised. "Why would I come back? I need to stay with the rest of the Digidestined, right, Thimon?"

"Right!" her Digimon beamed.

"So I'll see you later. Digi-Port, open!" Deanna called out. 

There was a blinding flash of blue light. Brian, Gwen, Rachael, John, Catherine, Lucas and their Digimon went through the Digi-Port, back to Earth.

Deanna sighed and pocketed her D-X. "I envy them," she said. "I wish I could go to Earth too. I've never been there before!"

Chris cracked up. "You don't want to go back _there_," he told her once he'd calmed down. "It's _horrible._ People wear shirts on their legs, some foods eat people, fish fly, and the ground is way up where the sky used to be."

"That's right," Leon chimed in, looking very serious. "Fire is cold, the sun is about to explode, and the whole world is run by damn dirty apes!" he added in a mock Austin Powers voice.

Deanna looked horrified. "Are you serious?"

"Forget them, they're just a couple of idiots," Cleo told her. "C'mon, we ought to go while Sabinemon's in one spot. Got the map, Tina?"

Tina nodded. 

"All right. Let's hit the trail," Lee said. "Onward, troops!"

It took five days to trek across Server and cross the border into Torii, but they eventually made it. 

"Can we take a break now?" Mike panted as they neared the forest close to the Lake of Fire. "I'm dying here!" 

Kiko sat on a huge rock. "Whether we take a break or not, I'm sitting here until my feet stop hurting!" he said adamantly, crossing his arms. 

Lee sighed. "We might as well. We could use the rest for when we go to fight Sabinemon."

"_And_ beat her ass down," Kinaka put in.

"Her ass is grass!" Lauren said, giggling,

Lee looked at them in surprise. Both Kinaka and Lauren had been rather quiet on the journey. They had barely said five words since they left Server.

"Whatever," Chris muttered. "Let's just hurry up with our break time."

In about an hour, they were all ready to go.

"The Digidestined go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah," Cleo sang as they walked through the forest.

"The Digidestined go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah," Deanna sang with her.

"The Digidestined go marching one by one, her ass is grass 'fore the day is done," Lauren and Kinaka sang.

"And we all go marching down…to the ground…digitally get down…" the Digimon sang. "Boom boom boom boom boom!" 

Their silly little song went on for some time until Lee stopped dead. All of them crashed into one another. 

"LEE!" they all yelled from the ground.

"Shh!" she said sharply. "I see something!"

Holly rubbed her elbow as she got to her feet. "That's great, sis, but next time, put your signal light on!"

"Or your pilot light, if it isn't flickering," Leon added.

"Shh!" Lee repeated. She got down on all fours and crawled under a bush at the edge of the forest. Sighing and grumbling, the others followed suit without question. 

Lee peered through the leafy shrubbery. Though her vision was limited, she could see bright, flickering tongues of orange and red flames dancing across the surface of a lake.

"That's the Lake!" Kim whispered from beside her. 

"Well, duh," she said, swatting at Kim. "It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure that one out."

"Man, can you imagine surfing on that?" Chris said, his eyes wide. "Of course, your feet would probably burn to a crisp if you ever tried it."

"Whatever, let's just go fight!" Kinaka said impatiently. Her eyes had taken on a cold gleam, and her teeth were set like she was ready to do battle.

They all walked out of the forest and almost instantly, they saw Sabinemon sitting on the beach. She still hadn't changed out of her human form. 

When she saw them, she didn't do anything but smile. 

"Why, hello!" she called out. "How nice to see you!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, enough with the pleasantries," Jenna said. "Why don't you come over here and fight us?"

Sabinemon grinned. "Why don't _you_?" she said innocently, waving one hand through the air.

All of them were pulled toward her, like metal to a very strong magnet. Through they tried dragging their feet and grabbing onto solid objects, they were pulled right up to her.

She smiled then, with a very unhuman expression on her face. Her dark eyes lingered on the D-X's.

"Now, why don't you kids give me those delightful little devices?" Another wave of her hand, and their D-X's started to come toward her. They came off of knapsack straps, out of pockets, off of belt loops and in Tina's case, off of her fanny pack.

"Hey!" they all cried. They tried to snatch them back, but it was no use. Before they even too one step forward, she had tossed them into the Lake.

"NO!" everyone screamed…all but Deanna. She had a smile on her face, but nobody noticed.

"Now I will destroy you!" Sabinemon snarled, raising her hands.

Deanna began to laugh her head off. The others looked at her in shock, all wondering what the matter was with her.

"What the hell are you laughing at?" Cleo yelled at her. 

Deanna grinned. "Our D-X's are fireproof," she said. "And not to mention droolproof, sludgeproof, waterproof, and above all, acidproof."

"_Acidproof_?" Kiko shrieked.

As if on cue, all of the D-X's rose out of the Lake, all pulling behind them pendants on long, thin chains. 

Sabinemon looked furious. "Shit!" she yelled. "I didn't even think about that!"

"Then I guess I don't get my brains from you," Kinaka said coldly.

"Whatever," Lee muttered, grabbing her D-X and the necklace thing it was carrying. The pendant was dark blue, with a crescent moon around a small star.

Kiko and Mike were squealing with delight. "They're so cool!" both of them said, pulling the things over their heads. Mike's pendant was gold, and so was Kiko's. There was a pointy design on Mike's, and a thing shaped like a squiggle on Kiko's.

"What are these things?" Cleo asked Deanna. "You're the one who lives in the Digital World."

Deanna only shrugged and pulled hers on, like everyone else was doing.

The moment everyone put them on, they began to glow, each with its own color. 

"The Crests!" Sabinemon shrieked. "Oh, God, what have I done?"

Kinaka smirked at her. "I think you've sealed your fate, Mother dearest."


	10. In Sickness And Health

Wow

Wow! You guys must really love me! At my last count, I have 78 reviews! Thanks so much for appreciating what I've written, coz it means to world to me. Just to give you guys a heads up, this is the chapter where we find out the names of the Crests, thanks to Sora and Kari. Oh, and Sabinemon won't die for a while. I really hate her at the moment, but she'll have plenty of crimes worth dying for by the end of the chapter. 

****

Next Generation:…And So It Begins (Again)

CHAPTER TEN: IN SICKNESS AND HEALTH

Sabinemon cast another glance at the glowing medallions around their necks and smirked. "On the contrary, daughter," she said. A smile tugged at the corners of her lips. "Maybe I _can_ defeat you, even though you have that pathetic costume jewellery."

"You underestimate our power," Lee said coldly. "Kim? Let's do it."

Before long, the Digimon had DNA Digivolved and circled Sabinemon. Her only exit was through the Lake of Fire. 

"Don't you stupid kids understand?" she called through the throng. "You can't stop me! Least of all you, Kinaka!" she added, watching gleefully as Kinaka went purple with fury. 

"Kick her rotten ass, Pandoramon!" Lauren shouted. 

"Make her bite the dust!" Hikaru added.   
  
"What are you waiting for? ATTACK!" Jenna screamed.

Sabinemon grinned and waved her arm. "_Sabine Storm!_" she called out. From her fingertips, a glittery green dust shot out and surrounded them in a cloud. By the time the dust had cleared (and by the time they'd stopped coughing), she was diving into the Lake of Fire.

"See if you can find me now!" she called out before the roaring flames devoured her.

Kinaka stamped her foot. "Dammit!" she shrieked. "We had her right there! Why didn't we act on it?"

"Because she escaped before we had the chance to," Lauren told her gently. "Cool your jets, Kina. We can still get her. We have the map, remember?"

The laptop suddenly beeped. "Oh, that must be our parents calling us," Lauren exclaimed. She opened it up, and there were their parents again.

"Well?" Tai asked, his arms crossed. "Did you find her?"

"She got away again!" Kiko said angrily, his small face contorted with rage. "Uncle Tai, we're not strong enough to beat her. That's probably why she got away!"

"Calm down, Kiko," Kari said in a soothing tone. Then she got a better look at what was hanging around his neck.

"A Crest," she said quietly. "Kiko, you have a Crest?"

"That's what my mother called them," Kinaka said glumly, pulling at the golden chain. "What the hell are they?"

Sora smiled. "They're really very special," she said. "The emblems on them are reflections of you. For example, the one that Holly has is the Crest of Courage."

"That was my old Crest," Tai told his daughter proudly. "Wear it with pride, honey!"

"I definitely recognise Kiko's," Kari said thoughtfully. "It's the Crest of Destiny. And Mike's is the Crest of Miracles. They're very special."

"As in, the Golden Digi-Egg of Miracles?" Davis asked, bewildered. "How come he has it?"

Kiko and Mike grinned. "We're special!" they both exclaimed.

Sora peered for a while at Lee's. "Lee, yours is the Crest of Independence. I can see why," she joked. "Chris, yours is Mind's Eye. And Kim's is Faith."

"Tina's is Harmony," Kari put in. "Hikaru, can you move closer, honey? Oh, never mind, I see it. It's the Crest of Starlight."

"Kinaka's is Magic," Sora continued. "Deanna's is Loneliness, Lauren's is Unity, and Jenna's is Dignity."

Kari looked at the last two Crests with her brow furrowed. "Cleo's is Truth," she said at last. "And Leon…oh my…"

"What is it?" Leon asked. "What is it, Aunt Kari?"

"Leon, yours is the Crest of Darkness," she said in a hushed voice.

Leon's hand instantly went to the Crest. "Darkness?" he echoed. His broad shoulders slumped. "Maybe that's why I was such a good slave for those rotten Digimon."

"No, don't think that," Kari cried. "Don't you see, Leon? I have the Crest of Light, and it's always been my understanding that light and darkness aren't very different. You see, where there's light, there's dark somewhere. It's simple math. You can't have one without the other near it. It doesn't mean that you're evil, Leon, but it does mean that you are destined to be great."

"It's like your Aunt Kari and me," TK added. "Hope and Light. We were destined for the two greatest Crests ever made. Maybe you and someone else will continue that."

"Yeah, some unlucky lady," Lee cracked. "What will hers be, the Crest of Insanity?"

"Shut up," Leon groaned. "Is there anything you think that you don't say, Lee?"

"Nope," she grinned. 

Holly looked a little perplexed. "How do you know what they are, Mom?" she asked, touching her Crest. 

"I really don't know," Sora confessed. "I guess I sort of developed the talent after your dad first made his Digimon digivolve using the Crest of Courage, after which he returned to Earth for about a day. That night, I ran off to try to find him. I stumbled upon two evil Digimon having a conversation about your dad's Crest, and from that moment on, I was able to identify them all."

"I identified my own," Kari reminded her. "Remember?"

Sora grinned. "I sure do."

"What are we supposed to do with them?" Kinaka asked. "They don't seem really special to me, 'cept for the fact that they scared the hell outta my mom."

"Kinaka—" Matt started, but Izzy cut him off.

"They're a powerful tool that help your Digimon to digivolve," he explained. "You don't really need them, but they are good for channelling the power required to make a Digimon digivolve to the Ultimate level."

"Why don't we need them, Daddy?" Mike asked.

He smiled at his son. "The symbols on the Crests represent your strongest attribute," he replied. "They also say something about your personality. I guess you have the Crest of Miracles because your _were_ a miracle for your mom and me."

Mike's little face shone. "Really?" he asked.

"It's true, Mike," Mimi said, beaming at him. 

"Talk about happy sappy crap," Tina whispered to Holly. "He's a little pain in the ass!"

"I know how you feel. Lee's the same way," she whispered back.

"You just have to learn to channel the power to make your Digimon digivolve to the Ultimate level," Matt added.

"Will we be able to do that before or after Sabinemon tears the Digital World apart?" Kinaka asked.

Matt sighed. "Kina…"

Lee grinned. "Thanks for the info," she said to her mom. "These things are cool! I can't wait to try them out!"

Sora smiled back. "Just don't get yourself into a big mess, okay, Lee?"

Leon groaned. "Knowing Lee, that's next to impossible."

They spent the night around the Lake of Fire, excitedly chattering about their new talismans and what they thought their Digimon would look like…and what they were going to do to Sabinemon. 

"Usaiamon, whatcha think you're gonna look like?" Lauren asked her Digimon.

The little orange and yellow cat's tail twitched excitedly. "I'm going to have big, huge wings!" she exclaimed. "And I'm gonna fly circles around that Dark Princess!"

"My claws are gonna be huge," Fangmon said, looking down at his hands/paws/whatever you wanna call them. "My teeth are gonna be big, too. I'll pick her up and bite her in half!"

"And I'll zap her until I've used enough electricity to power the whole continent of Server!" Pikkimon squeaked, jumping around and throwing off a few sparks from her tail.

Jenna laughed and scooped her little Digimon up. "Try not to shock _us_, OK?"

It was about one in the morning when they all fell asleep, their Crests glowing with a steady, pulsating light. 

In the morning, after a feast of fried fish from a nearby stream, they all debated on where to go next. 

"Maybe we should stay here," Kiko said, biting his lower lip.

"Or maybe we oughta go back to Gennai's place, even if he isn't there," Jenna suggested.

"I say we find her and kick her ass!" Deanna said. "Tina, where's your map?"

Tina spread the map over the grass and traced an index finger down the browned parchment, trying to find the red dot that represented Sabinemon. "I don't see her," she said, frowning. "That's strange…I thought for sure we'd find her. That dot that represents her on the map is huge. I don't get why I can't see her."

"Oh, move over," Kim said irritably, pushing Tina aside and peering at the map. "Tina, those glasses don't help much, do they? 'Coz there's a huge red dot right _there_." She stabbed at the spot with her finger.

"What?" Lauren came over. "There's another one there," she said, pointing at a place about eight inches to the left. 

"And three more!" Tina added, her eyes wide as three new dots appeared.

Kinaka's eyes went wide. "Let me see where those dots are," she said, going in front of them. The five dots glowed brilliantly, right in plain view.

"Pass me your pen, Cleo," Kinaka ordered.

Once she had the pen in hand, she traced a line from one dot to the next. When she finished connecting them, she drew a circle around them. 

"There," she said, sounding pleased with herself. She tossed Cleo her pen and grinned widely. "Take a look at the map now."

The five dots formed a pentagram. The symbol on Kinaka's Crest.

"Isn't that a symbol of magic or something?" Lauren asked, her brown furrowed. 

"It's on my Crest, isn't it?" Kinaka retorted. "Yes, it is. You know what's strange, though, is that it doesn't seem like the five elements are represented in this pentagram. See, there's a dot on the place where it says Lake of Fire, and fire's only one element."

"There are other dots where it says Fire Mountain, Wall of Fire, Flame Springs and Corona Island Fire Cloud," Holly observed. "So what? It all has to do with fire."

Kinaka gently touched her flame pendant. "Exactly," she said. "Here's my theory. She's in the middle of all of this, dead center. Which means she's…" Her finger stabbed a point in the middle, where a red dot glowed. "…on Server. At Gennai's."

Deanna jumped up. "Then let's get going!" she shouted. "We might be able to catch her!"

They travelled down an old highway through a desert, following the map. The pavement was cracked and chipped in places, and the potholes were deep, but the road seemed to lead in the direction they were going.

"How much longer 'til we get there?" Mike whined. "Lauren, how much longer? My feet hurt!"

"Then jump on, brat," Lauren said, stooping down so her little brother could climb on her back. "I'll give you a piggyback for a few miles, then Tina can carry you for a while."

Tina stuck her tongue out at her sister. "He's heavy!" she complained. "How come I have to carry him too?"

"Because you're our sister, that's why," Lauren said tersely. Mike had his skinny little arms securely around her neck.

Kiko tugged at Hikaru's hand. "Can you give me a piggyback ride too?" he asked.

"I might as well," she sighed, stooping down too.

A few hours later, as the sun began to climb higher in the sky, Lauren stopped. "I can't carry him anymore, Tina," she panted. "It's your turn. Please!"

"All right," Tina groaned. 

As Lauren was stooped down to let Mike off, she began coughing hard. Her coughs sounded like they were coming from deep in her chest.

"Are you OK?" Tina asked.

"I'm fine," she said. 

Behind them, Hikaru and Jenna had also started to cough. 

__

Maybe they've all got a cold or something, Tina mused. _Or maybe it's all this dust out here. Lauren was always allergic to dust. _

Without warning, Lauren dropped to her knees and began to cough again, louder and harder. Hikaru fell over onto the ground, with Kiko still on her back. Jenna dropped like she'd been shot and hit the pavement hard on her hands and knees, then fell on her face. All three were coughing like someone with pneumonia might.

Kiko scrambled up off the ground and looked fearfully at his older sister as she coughed harder than ever. "Hikaru, what's the matter?" he asked in a shrill, high-pitched voice. "What's the matter?"

Cleo and Leon both ran for Jenna, but Leon got there first. He scooped her up in his arms and her head rolled back, showing that her face had gone almost dead-white. She was still coughing hard. 

Kinaka and Tina tried to help Lauren up, but she couldn't stand. Her legs kept giving out when they tried to get her to stand, crumpling under her body. She, too, was coughing. She almost sounded like she was choking.

"What's the matter with them?" Cleo screamed. "Jenna? _Jenna!_"

"They're asleep," Cleo said in a hushed voice. She gestured toward the shade of a large palm tree, where the three girls were fast asleep.

Yolei clapped a hand over her mouth. "They look really sick," she gasped. "What happened?"

"None of us know," Tina sighed. "They just started coughing and all of a sudden, they passed out. They came to once we had them in the shade, but they just dropped off again. Something's really wrong with them, I can just tell!" 

"They've all got a fever," Leon reported. "And that cough sounded brutal."

Kari bit her lower lip. "The same thing happened to me the first time I went to the Digital World," she said. "I was really sick. I had a fever of about 107°, and I had a cough too. We figured out, years later, that it was because of an imbalance in the Digital World that caused me to fall ill."

Kiko looked distressed. "Mommy, does that mean that I'm gonna get sick too?"

"Only those who are pure of heart will be affected," TK informed him. "I got sick once there, but it was a minor 'flu bug. Your mom, however…" he cast a grin at Kari, "was seriously ill. Maybe your sister took after her."

"Great," Kari groaned. "I had to go and pass my weak immune system on to my daughter."

"They're travelling the same road we did when we were all separated," Izzy remarked. "Maybe that has something to do with it?"

"It could be," Tai agreed.

"What road? This one?" Holly asked.

** __**

~Flashback~

"Do you have a hairball, Kari?" Gatomon asked.

Kari finished her sudden bout of coughing and looked at her partner, grinning. "No, silly. I'll be OK."

Tai, Sora, Izzy and TK were ahead of her. Tai was scoping out the terrain with his mini telescope.

"We're almost there," he informed everyone. "We—"

He was interrupted by a short moan and a sudden thud on the ground behind him. When he turned around to look, there was his little sister sprawled out of the pavement, clearly unconscious.

"Kari!" he cried, rushing to her.

They rested in the shade of an old bus stop. Sora pressed a cool cloth to Kari's fevered forehead, but it didn't seem to be doing much.

"Don't worry. I won't leave you," Gatomon said softly to the little girl, nuzzling her affectionately.

~End flashback~

Cleo gazed toward her sister. Pikkimon was curled in a ball at Jenna's side. She sighed and turned to face the screen again. "I'm really scared for her, Mom," she choked out.

"Don't worry," her mom soothed. "You know Jenna. She's strong."

"If anything else happens, let us know," Ken added before the batteries in the computer went completely dead.

Tina smacked her forehead. "Dammit!" she yelled. "I knew we should have recharged the batteries at Gennai's!"

"Who cares, we'll recharge them when we get back there," Kinaka said irritably. "After we kick Sabinemon's ass, that is."

Cleo looked anxious. "But what if something worse happens to them?" she asked, wringing her hands. "Then we won't be able to talk to our parents!"

There was silence, except for the sound of the wind scraping across the desert.

"Mmm…"

"What was that?" Tina shrieked.

Cleo sat up, her ears perked. "I heard it too," she whispered. "What was it?"

"Mmm…"

"I think it's Lauren!" Mike proclaimed. "Maybe they're gonna wake up!"

Jenna's eyes suddenly snapped open. She stared up at the slowly darkening sky for a few minutes, before crying out, "Pikkimon! Pikkimon, where are you?"

The little Digimon at her side stirred and looked at her partner. "Jenna!" she exclaimed, throwing her little arms around Jenna. "I thought you would never wake up!"

But Jenna stared past her into something only she could see. "Pikkimon!" she sobbed. "Please, I need you!"

Leon darted forward and dropped on his knees at her side. "Jenna, she's right next to you," he said. "Can't you see her?"

She lay there, still crying out for her Digimon.

Leon gently touched her forehead, then pulled his hand away like he'd been burned. "She feels like she's on fire!" he yelled. "Cleo, get over here!"

He didn't even have to tell her to come. She was over there before he could finish his sentence. 

"Here," she said brusquely, shoving a thermometer at him. "This was in the first aid kit in Jenna's backpack. See what her temperature is, will you?"

A few minutes later, Leon was reading her temperature in horror. "She's got a fever of 104.5!" he cried. 

"Oh God," Cleo moaned. "What are we gonna do?"

"Check the rest of them!" Lee instructed her brother. "See if they've got a fever too."

They checked. All three girls had high fevers, but Jenna's was the highest. 

"Are humans supposed to be that color?" Usaiamon asked, pointing at Lauren's flushed face. "That's not right…"

"You're right, it isn't," Tina agreed. "What we need is some ice to cool them down, but where are we gonna get any?"

As is on cue, Auroramon stepped forward. "_Shivering Ice!_" she called out. About a hundred ice cubes shot out of her tail, forming a pile on the ground.

"Great job, Auroramon!" Kinaka said, giving her a hug. "But you know what this means?"

"Um…no. What does it mean, Kina?"

"You and I aren't getting any sleep tonight."

"OK," Cleo said about half an hour later, as the sun began to set. "We have to set up shifts or something."

"Why?" Leon asked.

Holly punched him in the shoulder. "To make sure they don't get sicker, dumbass," she chastised him. "Don't you ever think?"

"Holl, this is Bubby we're talking about," Lee cracked. "He never thinks!"

"Speak for yourself, little sister," Leon grumped, rubbing his sore shoulder.

Cleo gave the three of them a dirty look. "As I was saying," she continued, "we're gonna need volunteers to stay up and watch them. You know, so they don't get worse."

Chris poked the fire. "I'll take first shift," he said. 

"Great. We need two more people to take that shift with you," Cleo continued. 

"I'll do it," Kinaka and Leon said at the same time.

Auroramon giggled. "I guess I have to do it too, then. You guys need all the help you can get!"

Kinaka reached over and not-so-gently pinched Auroramon on the forearm.

"Ow!" she cried.

"You guys can watch them until two AM, OK?" Cleo said. "Me and Holly and Deanna will take over from there, until 4 AM. Kim and Lee and Tina can take the last shift."

"What about us?" Mike and Kiko asked in unison.

Tina ruffled her little brother's bright red hair. "Sorry, squirt, but you need your sleep," she told him.

Mike puffed out his chest. "I'm a big boy," he grumbled. "I can handle it."

"You might get sick too," Kiko told his friend. "Maybe Tina's right."

As soon as the sun went down (at about nine thirty), Leon, Kinaka and Chris got ready for the first shift. Ice cubes were made, the fire was stoked, and Lauren, Hikaru and Jenna were brought closer to the fire to keep them warm.

"Take good care of them," Kiko yawned before dozing off. 

"I'll sue you guys for malpractice if anything goes wrong," Tina warned.

"Wake me up if anything happens," Cleo told them.

The last of them fell asleep around ten-thirty. 

Kinaka looked helplessly at Leon. "Well?" she said. "What do we do now?"

Chris spoke up. "You know," he mused, "we can't just watch over one and not the others. We ought to split them up between us."

"What?" Leon and Kinaka asked.

He pointed at the three comatose girls. "Leon can take care of Jenna, Kinaka can take care of Lauren, and I'll stay with Hikaru," he said. "They're our DNA partners, after all."

Auroramon grinned. "Don't forget about the ice! Anytime you need any more, just ask me. OK?"

"You are the best Digimon ever, you know that?" Kinaka grinned, ruffling Auroramon's silvery fur.

Kinaka gathered up another handful of ice cubes and wrapped them in a piece of denim torn off the hem of her skirt. She put the cold compress on Lauren's blistering hot forehead and sat back, staring at the dancing flames.

__

When will this shift end? she groaned inwardly, checking her D-X. It was only 12:13 AM. 

For the last few hours, she and Leon and Chris had been desperately trying to keep their fevers down. Hikaru and Lauren's fevers, both of 103.9, had gone down by a degree and a half since they'd begun their watch, but Jenna's still raged out of control. It certainly didn't help that her fever had risen to 107 during the last hour or so, nor did it help that she kept crying out in delirium. Leon was nearly at his wit's end trying to help her.

Lauren suddenly stirred. Her green eyes, bright with fever, opened wide and stared into nothingness. "Usaiamon," she whimpered. "Mom…Daddy…"

"It's OK, Lauren," Kinaka tried to reassure her, checking the cold compress. It was almost melted. _Oh great, now _she's _delirious too!_

"I want my mom," she whimpered, shaking her head from side to side. "I want my mom."

"Please, stop it," Kinaka groaned. "You're gonna be OK, Lauren, I promise."

Nearby, Hikaru was doing the same to Chris. Her delirium was more focused on her mother's previous illness. 

"My mom is sick," she cried out. "I have to get to her! She's going to die…"

"No, she's not," Chris told her firmly, though he was getting a bit unnerved at her blank stare. 

"Where's Pikkimon?" Jenna kept asking, even though the little Digimon was frantically trying to make herself seen.

"Jenna, I'm right in front of you," she sobbed, beating her tiny fists on Jenna's chest. "Look at me!"

Kinaka groaned. _This night isn't ever going to end…_

Their shift ended at 2 AM. Kinaka was absolutely ecstatic at the thought of sleep. 

"You lucky brats," she said to Cleo, Holly and Deanna. "You weren't awake to hear them being all panicky. They were delirious."

Leon got up from beside Jenna, stretching. "Her fever's at 107.8 now," he informed Cleo quietly, handing her the thermometer.

"Oh, shit," Cleo muttered. "Listen, if anything happens and we need your help, we'll wake you up, all right?"

"No, don't," Kinaka groaned, curling up in a ball on the ground. Within minutes, she was sleeping. 

Chris fell asleep, too. But Leon didn't.

Near 4 AM, Leon woke up from a fitful sleep. On the other side of the fire, Cleo, Deanna and Holly had fallen asleep. Auroramon had crawled over to Kinaka and was now fast asleep at her side. 

__

Damn them! he thought angrily. _If any of them die, I swear to God I'll…_

A low groan interrupted his train of thought. He walked around the fire, and there was Jenna, her eyes wide.

__

Oh no, not again, he groaned inwardly. _I just can't take this. If she's delirious again…_

She began muttering again. "Mom…Dad…Cleo…"

"Shh, Jenna," he soothed her, checking the cold compress on her forehead. There was no more ice in it. "Damn!" 

__

I'm gonna kick Cleo's ass. Why'd she have to fall asleep? 

"Pikkimon…Leon…"

He froze, staring in shock at her. "What did you say?" he asked quietly. 

"Leon."

__

Why is she calling for me? he wondered. _What does she want _me_ for?_

Aloud, he said, "I'm right here."

She reached out her hands and grasped one of his. "Leon," she said, sounding relieved. She closed her eyes, and seemingly went back to sleep. 

Try as he might, Leon couldn't get his hand free of hers. "Aw, man," he groaned. "Auroramon! Hey! _Auroramon!_"

The little Digimon's eyes flew open, and she gaped at Leon. "What are you doing up?" she said, yawning.

"Never mind that! I need some more ice!"

"I thought that Cleo and Deanna and Holly were watching them," she yawned.

"It doesn't matter! Just get me some ice! Please?"

"Okay." Within seconds, she had made a new pile of ice.

"Thanks." With his free hand, he wrapped a chunk of ice up and put it on Jenna's forehead. "Can you check on Lauren and Hikaru?" he asked.

Auroramon snatched the thermometer out of Cleo's hand and checked their temperatures. "Lauren's is almost back to normal," she reported. "Hikaru's is too. Here. Check Jenna's." 

She tossed the thermometer to him, and he caught it. 

He breathed a sigh of relief when he read the reading. "She's at 99 now," he said, feeling as though a weight had lifted off his chest. "You can put some more ice on them, and then go back to bed, OK?"

Auroramon gave him a grin and did what he asked. "You know," she said as she finished, "I oughta be a Digi-doctor!"

He laughed. "Whatever. You can go to sleep now."

She walked back toward Kinaka, but before she settled down next to her, she turned and gave Leon a wink.

"Don't worry, Leon, I won't tell," she grinned, pointing to his hand. It was still…attached to Jenna's. 

He turned beet red. "Just go back to sleep!"

He was woken up at about 9:30 the next morning by a sharp kick in the ribs.

"What the hell—"

"You stupid sodding bastard!" Cleo yelled in his ear. "Auroramon told me you were awake when we fell asleep. Why didn't you wake us up?"

Leon carefully got to his feet, holding his side. "They were almost back to normal," he managed to utter weakly. 

She kicked him in the shins this time. 

"Ow!" he cried in protest. "Cleo—"

"Cleo! Leave him alone!"

Both Cleo and Leon's jaws hit the ground as Jenna herself sat up, looking almost perfectly healthy. 

"Great, Cleo," she said angrily. "Break his ribs, why don't you?" 

Cleo almost broke a few of Jenna's bones by jumping at her and hugging her tight. "Jennnnnnnnnnaaaaaaaaa!" she squealed. "You're better! You're better!"

"Not quite. Get the hell off of me, Cleo!" 

"Sorry." Cleo let her arms drop to her sides. "You sure scared me, little sis."

Jenna gave her a grin. "Who, me? You know me, sister dear. I'm healthy as a horse!"

"Right."

Hikaru, who had just woken up, was being mauled by Kiko. He was hugging her so tightly that she had to practically pry him loose with a crowbar. Pretty much the same thing was happening to Lauren.

Kinaka gave Lauren a quick hug and turned to start breakfast. Her eye caught a folded note stuck under the log nearest to the fire.

"Hey, guys, check it out," she called to them. She unfolded the paper, read it, and turned white.

"Holy shit!" she yelled. 

Lauren got up, having finally managed to pry herself free of her siblings, and came up to Kinaka. "What is it?" she asked.

Grimly, Kinaka handed her the note. "My mother came to call, and she left this."

__

Digidestined:

Hope you enjoyed that little virus I sent out. I rather enjoyed watching those love-sick boys and those foolish girls trying to rescue the invalids. It was very cute. Kinaka, I see you haven't inherited much from me. 

Well, now that they're all better, I have some news for you. There's more fun to come, and it's coming soon. Or rather, I'm coming soon. I know your little computer's broken. Boo hoo hoo. Your mommies and daddies can't save you now! 

Until I see you.

-S.


	11. Ultimatum

Ooh…freaky. Ahem. Um, Digimon's not my property and lots of other piddly crap. Muahahaha.

****

Next Generation:…And So It Begins (Again)

CHAPTER ELEVEN: ULTIMATUM

Lee tore the note out of Lauren's hand and tossed it violently into the fire. "Never mind her," she said tersely. "We'll get her back for this. Just watch."

Starymon tugged at Lee's arm. ""Um, when are we gonna do that, Lee?" she asked. 

She sighed. "I don't know. We're in the middle of a barren desert in Kai right now. It'll take awhile. Plus, Lauren and Hikaru and Jenna have been sick. We just can't rush off until they've regained their strength."

"What are you talking about, Lee? I'm perfectly fine!" Hikaru said, sounding highly affronted.

Kiko shook his head. "You know, I think she's right," he said. "Maybe we _should_ stay here for a little while longer."

"I agree," Holly said. "All in favor of _not_ leaving for Server tomorrow?"

"Aye!" most of them yelled.

"All opposed?"

"Nay!" Hikaru, Jenna, Lauren and Kinaka called out.

"The ayes have it. Too bad," Holly grinned. 

She was curled up on Gennai's old ripped-up sofa, her mind in utter turmoil. She was once again in her human body. 

__

Who am I? I am Sabinemon, the Princess of Darkness. I am the daughter of LadyDevimon and Makaramon. I am Sabrina O'Reilley Ishida. I am a Digimon. I am a human. I am all these things.

But which is truly myself?

She didn't know anymore.

__

How long has it been since I left my home? How long has it been since I last saw my family? It's been over a thousand years since I last saw my parents, and it's been at least a century since I saw my siblings, or my own children. 

She let out a cry and slammed her fist into one of the pillows on the sofa, tears slipping down her cheeks. _MetalDevimon was my brother…my husband…the only one I could truly call my friend. And now he's gone. MaloMyotismon, Piedmon, Puppetmon, MetalSeadramon and Machinedramon were killed almost thirty years ago, my poor babies. And Kinaka…that girl doesn't even know how powerful she really is, or how strong she could be if she just let me near her…Damn it all! She's the only thing I have left in the Digital World and she's pushing me away!_

She finally dried her eyes and got up. _If she doesn't want me, then I don't want her, _she decided. _If she won't be my daughter, then I am no longer her mother. If she refuses me again, well, she's not going to be around much longer. I'll see to that._

"Are you _sure_ you're all right, Jenna?" Tina asked Lauren for the fifty millionth time.

"I'm FINE!" Lauren bellowed. In a milder tone, she added, "Tina, I'm perfectly healthy. No stupid fever is gonna keep _me_ down!" 

"I feel a heck of a lot better than I did a couple of days ago," Jenna added, arms crossed over her chest. "Are we gonna get moving soon or what?"

"Let's just go already!" Hikaru said tersely. 

Kim doused the fire, and they began their journey back to Server.

It was about noon when they stopped, near a tranquil lake. Kiko and Mike had been complaining for about an hour about how hungry they were, and their sisters were getting more than a little pissed off. 

Chris took this opportunity to show off his culinary mastery. While Mike and Kiko chased eachother to keep their minds off their hunger, he began to prepare a lunch of fried fish and fruit.

Hikaru wandered over to where he was, and surveyed the food. "Looks good, Chris," she commented. "And it smells even better!"

He grinned at her. "I'm almost done," he said, poking at a fillet on the makeshift spit. "It may not be gourmet, but it beats starving to death."

"No kidding!" she laughed. She reached out to sneak a piece of freshly-cooked fish, but burned her fingers. "Ouch!"

Chris laughed and flipped the last piece out of the fire. "Maybe you should have waited," he teased her.

Jenna ambled over and broke off a piece of hot fish. "Argh! Hot! Hot! Hot!" she squeaked. She stuffed the piece in her mouth anyway and walked off. 

"Call the others for lunch, will you?" Hikaru called after her. 

After lunch, they all sat around talking. 

"That was delicious," Deanna sighed. "Mom used to make swordfish in chuckieberry batter, but that meal just beats the hell out of her recipe!"

"I learned from my dad," Chris said, shrugging. "Not much to it."

"Great grub!" Kiko piped up. He and Mike had probably eaten the most.

Hikaru groaned. "Kiko, you little pig! You ate at least five pieces more than me!"

"No, he didn't," Kim put in. "I ate maybe six pieces more than him!" She ducked as Lee tossed a fish tail at her.

"It was good anyway," Lee tacked on. "As soon as you guys are ready, we'll go again. OK?"

"OK," everyone agreed.

Izzy's brow was furrowed as he stared at the computer screen. "I don't understand," he said, sounding perplexed. "They haven't talked to us in almost two days."

Yolei was wringing her hands. "What if something terrible has happened? What if they're all sick now?" she wailed. 

"Don't talk like that," Kari said sharply. She was holding Tania, who was starting to fuss.

"Hey, our kids are fine," Davis tried to reassure everyone. "I know they are. Maybe the laptop ran out of batteries."

"Davis, stop thinking before your brain curls up and dies," Jun groaned.

"You know, he's right," Tai said. "I'm sure they're OK."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Kim screamed. "What the hell is that?"

She pointed into the slowly darkening sky. A large black mass of _something_ was headed their way, buzzing loudly. It didn't look too good.

As the black mass came closer, it became clearer and clearer. Separate bodies began to become visible. Soon, the kids could see a whole swarm of red-and-yellow striped bodies with huge wings and gigantic stingers.

"What _are _those things?" Kiko yelped. 

"They're Flymon," Pikkimon said darkly. "I can't tell which end is worse, their fronts or their backs."

"Why? What do they do?" Kinaka asked.

Auroramon's ears were flattened against her head. "They're very easily influenced to evil, so they can be hired as assassins with little difficulty. If they bite you, you're poisoned, and dead within an hour. If they sting you, you're dead. Either way, you're screwed."

"Who cares? Let's kick some ass!" Leon said. Fangmon nodded in agreement.

The first line of Flymon swooped down on them. "Ground Stingers!" they all yelled. Darts shot from their back ends, narrowly missing them all. The darts buried themselves into the ground.

"All right, you asked for it. Pikkimon digivolve to…Ditramon!"

One by one, the little Rookies digivolved to the champion level. 

"Crimson Fire!" Faeradramon cried out. Flames shot out of her mouth and completely incinerated a whole pack of Flymon.

"Light Blade!" Kenkamon yelled. From his katana, a shaft of bright silver light slashed across the sky. About a dozen Flymon were sliced in half.

"Freezing Hail!" Iceamon shouted. A huge hailstorm came out of nowhere and pummeled the Flymon. 

It didn't take very long for them to wipe the Flymon out.

"This is great and all, but I don't get it. Why did they attack us?" Kim asked. 

Kinaka suddenly went pale. "I think they were a little warning," she said through clenched teeth. "Look up there."

Sabinemon herself was flying in, her eyes glowing red. "Hello again!" she called to them. "I guess I missed the party! But now that I'm here, we can have some real fun. Come here, boys." She pointed straight at Kiko and Mike.

The two little boys were propelled forward by some unseen force, straight into the air. Sabinemon grabbed them both by the arms and smirked.

Kiko yelled in terror. "Hikaru! Spartimon! Help me!" he cried out. His big amber eyes were wide. "I'm scared of high places!"

Mike was also yelling. "Kenkamon! Lauren! Tinaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" he cried. Big fat tears were rolling down his chubby cheeks. "I'm scared up here! Someone get me down!"

Sabinemon only laughed. "Oh, you poor little boys," she said in a soft voice. "I know how scared you must be. How about this? If Kinaka says I can take her instead of you, I'll let you down."

"What? Go with _you?_" Kinaka cried in outrage.

"Think it over," Sabinemon said glibly. She muttered a few words in a language none of them recognised, and suddenly Mike and Kiko began to retch.

"I don't feel so good," Kiko moaned. 

As if on cue, both boys began to vomit bright red blood. It splashed to the ground, right at Kinaka's feet. She jumped back, screaming in horror.

"Need a little more convincing?" the evil Digimon said sweetly. She pointed at Leon, who doubled over and clutched at his head where his scar was.

"Argh!" he yelled. "My head! It's gonna split open!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha!" Sabinemon cackled. "That's only the beginning! _Black Plague!_"

A swarm of black data blossomed out of the amulet that she wore. The data enveloped all the Digidestined, except for Kinaka. 

"AAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHH!" Holly screamed, as huge black rashes appeared all over her skin. 

"It itches!" Lee moaned. She, too, was covered in rashes. So was everyone else.

"What are you doing to them?" Kinaka screamed. "Stop it!"

Above her, Mike and Kiko were still spewing blood. Between the blood, the cries of the others, and the way Sabinemon was laughing at them, it was completely unbearable. 

"Their lives or yours," Sabinemon said from above her. Her dark eyes were glittering maliciously.

"STOP IT!" Kinaka screamed. Her Crest, as well as Iceamon, were glowing with bright green light as she faced her mother.

"You _bitch_!" she spat out. "I can't believe you're actually my _mother_! How could someone who was so sweet and kind when I was a kid be so cold-hearted now? How could I share blood with you when I am nothing like you? We might look alike, but that's as far as the similarities go. Look at you! Look at what you made of yourself! I'm not all clean and immaculate or anything, but at least I haven't been torturing innocent Digimon and killing them! At least I didn't completely desert my daughter and husband to marry my half-brother! You deserted me, and that alone is enough to make me want to tear your miserable hide apart! You've made so many people feel pain and suffering, and for that, you are going to pay. You claimed lives, and now, I come to claim yours!"

She stopped for a moment, breathing heavily, with her Crest glowing fiercely on her chest. It had sounded like she'd been waiting for a long time to say what she had just said. Everyone watched her, forgetting their pain for a second, to see what she would do next. 

Finally, after a long time, she cried out, "Iceamon! _GET HER!"_

But she wasn't Iceamon anymore. Instead, a humanoid woman with dark blue skin stood there. She wore white fur clothes and silver jewelry around her neck, wrists and ankles. Green light, like the light from Kinaka's Crest, was shining around her. 

"Who…who are you?" Kinaka asked, stunned. 

"I am Shidracamon," the woman answered. "I'm an Ultimate-level Digimon. You helped me digivolve, Kinaka."

Kinaka was at a loss for words. "I…I…you…I mean…wow," she stammered, looking completely astounded. "You're pretty cool."

"Damn straight! Now do you want me to fight that loser or what?" Shidracamon asked her.

"Are you kidding me? GO!"

Shidracamon rose in the air. "What are the rest of you waiting for? Help me out!" she called to the other Digimon.

"OK! Planamon digivolve to…Sunamon!" Sunamon was twice as large as Planamon, bright yellow, and had huge red eyes. Lee cheered as her Digimon rose in the air and joined Shidracamon.

"Bukaramon digivolve to…MegaBukaramon!" MegaBukaramon was an angel with a long cat's tail. She was dressed in yellow, orange and pink. 

Lauren let out a shrill whistle. "Kick her ass, MegaBukaramon!"

"Darkmon digivolve to…Evilmon!" Evilmon was a huge, scaly black dragon with four wings. As Leon watched in amazement, Evilmon let out a blast of flames from his mouth and roared.

"Purzinmon digivolve to…MegaPurzinmon!" MegaPurzinmon was a golden lion standing on two legs, with a staff in her hand and big red eyes. 

"Whoo! Let's kick some boo-tay!" Hikaru yelled. 

"Thigermon digivolve to…Thungermon!" Thungermon was a massive reptile/tiger, with blue reptile skin, red dragon wings, gray stripes and green eyes.

"Kimmimon digivolve to…Taigamon!" Taigamon was a gigantic black and white tiger.

"Faeradramon digivolve to…Sylphdramon!" Sylphdramon was a dark blue and green dragon with six wings. She had a single green emerald between her eyes.

"Wolfmon digivolve to…Feralmon!" Feralmon looked about the same as Wolfmon, only she was standing up and she was now wearing chains around her neck and had a hand cannon.

"Psymon digivolve to…Ultra-Psymon!" Ultra-Psymon was a black angel, with large black bat wings, claws, and a visor. On the visor was Chris's Crest symbol. 

"Entrancedmon digivolve to…Imbuemon!" Imbuemon looked like a pixie. She was purple and blue, with a green face and a visor that covered only one eye. The eye that was showing was bright florescent green.

"Spartimon digivolve to…Nimbumon!" Nimbumon was an angel **(think in terms of MagnaAngemon) **with a golden breastplate bearing the Crest of Destiny. He had two huge golden wings, and a nimbus of gold and silver light over his head. His headgear was silver.

"Ditramon digivolve to…StarLuprimon!" StarLuprimon was only slightly taller than Jenna was, with dark blue fur that had yellow stars in it. She wore a long purple cloak. 

"Kenkamon digivolve to…Toromon!" Toromon was a tall, humanoid man with green skin and long dark-blue hair. He was dressed like a samurai and wielded a lightsabre. 

"Digimon, front and center!" Lee yelled. "ATTACK!!"

They didn't need to br told. They immediately sprang into action.

Toromon and Nimbumon went for Sabinemon first. She still had Kiko and Mike in the air with her. Both little boys had turned faintly green.

"Let our partners go!" Nimbumon roared. 

"I don't think so," she sneered. 

"Have it your way then. _Samurai Blade!_"

"_Wings of Heaven!_" 

Sabinemon dropped Kiko and Mike, gasping as she clutched her stomach. They were quickly caught by their Digimon, who brought them to the ground before resuming the battle.

"Kiko!" Hikaru cried, hugging her little brother. "Oh my God, I thought she had you for good there!" 

He closed his eyes. "Hikaru, I'm not feeling so good," he said weakly.

Beside them, Mike was being fussed over by _his_ sisters. 

Above them all, the battle was raging fiercely. Sabinemon was holding her own quite well, even with 14 Ultimate-level Digimon attempting to wipe the floor with her. 

"_Shadow Wind!"_ Evilmon roared. Jet-black flames issued from his jaws. 

__

"Sun's Heat!" Sunamon yelled. Flames danced around her, and she shot them straight into Sabinemon's face.

__

"Cupid's Arrow!" MegaBukaramon cried out. Long, deadly arrows flew out of her cat's tail.

__

"Tiger Tornado!" Thungermon growled. She spun around, and a blue tornado hurtled toward Sabinemon, knocking her over. 

__

"Lion's Pride!" MegaPurzinmon shouted. She pointed her staff at Sabinemon, and jets of red light shot at her.

__

"Steel Claw!" Taigamon brought back her large paw and sliced away at Sabinemon. 

__

"Winds of Heaven!" Nimbumon cried. His wings beat faster and faster, until blasts of ice issued from his wings.

__

"Dragon Wrath!" Sylphdramon shrieked, blasting fireballs from her tail and mouth.

__

"Psychic Wave!" Ultra-Psymon yelled. He wrapped himself in his wings, and when he unfolded them, a wave of energy blasted out of him.

__

"Pixie Dust!" Imbuemon yelled. She threw handfuls of shimmery gold dust at Sabinemon.

__

"Howling Torpedo!" Feralmon screamed out, launching missiles out of her hand cannon.

StarLuprimon stepped forward. _"Fox Trick!" _she cried out. She flew at Sabinemon and draped her cape over her. Sabinemon screamed in agony, and when the cape was removed from her, she was back in her human form.

Kinaka looked at Shidracamon and nodded. 

Shidracamon's jewelry began to glow as she gathered the energy for her attack. She created a huge blue ball marbled with silver. 

__

"Aurora Ice Beam!" she shrieked once the energy ball was formed. With that, she lobbed it straight at Sabinemon. 

Sabinemon let out a horrible, shrill cry of pain as the ball of energy hit her. There was a blinding flash of light as the ball drained her of her life. When the light finally receded after a minute or so, she lay there gasping on the ground, with burns and scrapes all over her body. 

"Please," she croaked out in a raspy voice, "don't be upset at me, Kinaka. I did love you. And…tell your father I'm sorry I left, because I loved him too."

She took one final breath, and dissolved into silvery digi-dust. 

There was quiet in the desert for about five minutes. Finally, the shrill call of a Vulturemon in the distance brought them back to their senses. They screamed, whooped, hollered, and hugged their little Digimon, who had reverted back to their In-Training forms. They hugged eachother tightly, happy that Sabinemon's reign of terror was finally over. Only Kinaka stood silently, holding Rupimon.

Jenna noticed her over Leon's shoulder. She broke away from him and went up to Kinaka. 

"Are you going to be OK?" she asked. 

Kinaka looked at the site of the battle, where the winds had just begun to stir the pile of dust that used to be her mother. 

"I'll be fine," she said at last. "I'll be fine."

Lauren came up and linked her arm in Kinaka's. "Who's up for a little singing?" she called out. 

"What do you have in mind?" Lee asked. 

Tina began to sing softly. "We are the champions, my friends…"

"And we'll keep on fighting till the end," Kim added.

They all pitched in. "We are the champions, we are the champions! No time for losers, 'coz we are the champions…of the Digi-World!"

Mike piped up. "Shouldn't it be 'we are the ultimates'?" he asked, his brow furrowed. 

Tina laughed and scooped him into her arms. "Kids," she muttered. 

"Well, let's get a move on," Lee called out. She shouldered her duffel bag and looked around at the group. "Let's go, Digidestined!" 

They trudged ahead through the desert, their backs to the setting sun. Behind them, a silvery cloud of Digi-dust whirled along. 


	12. Requiem on Corona Island

Whew! The Sabinemon sagas are SO over! But wait, I'm not done yet! We still have a whole barrage of problems to go thru yet! So…let's go!

****

Next Generation:…And So It Begins (Again)

CHAPTER TWELVE: REQUIEM ON CORONA ISLAND

They trudged along the highway, the Kai sun beating relentlessly down on their backs. They were all badly sunburned, their water and food supplies were running low, and they were still nursing their injuries that Sabinemon afflicted on them. Mike and Kiko were suffering the worst; they may have been bleeding internally for all the others knew. At their sides, their partners plodded or hopped along, whichever was more convenient for them.

"How…much…farther?" Kim gasped as Lee studied the map. 

She looked up. "Not long," she assured her friend. "Just a kilometer or so. Thank God, the map is still working, or else we'd have no idea where the hell we are."

"Question—just exactly _where_ the hell are we?" Kinaka puffed. "I'd sure like to know! Are we in Server yet, or are we going to blister to death any longer in this crappy continent any longer than we have to?"

Suddenly, the scrubby trees lining the road began to grow thicker. Pine trees were now the main foliage. As they continued on the highway, they came closer and closer until…

"The forest!" Deanna trilled, running ahead. "Oh my God, I never thought I'd ever see it again!"

"Careful!" Cleo called after her. "Are there any unfriendly Digimon in there that we need to know about?"

"Uh…as far as I know, no."

The highway suddenly ended. They were now on a carpet of emerald green grass, in front of a shimmering lake. Fish jumped up occasionally, telling them that they'd be having a real feast pretty soon.

"Gourmet chef, coming through!" Chris grinned. "Let's get those suckers caught, cleaned and cooked so we can eat! Hikaru, you get some sticks, and Kinaka…you can sharpen them."

"I want to help!" Lauren piped up. "C'mon, Chris, can't I help you?"

Tina snorted. "Laur, you can't cook worth a bean! What makes you think we're gonna let you cook?"

Lauren pouted. "Mom and Dad seemed to like my green Jello marmalade."

"Yeah, well, remember Mom telling us about how Grandma Naoko once made shrimp-fried rice with strawberries and whipped cream? I think you took after her, sis."

"Whatever," Kinaka said. "Just as long as we don't have to chew on chunks of charcoal."

Mike grinned impishly. "If you let Lauren cook, that's what we'll end up eating!"

Soon, Chris had made another great feast. They sat around, greedily guzzling all the food they could grab.

"Y'know," Kim said thoughtfully after her seventeenth fillet, "I'd kill for some of my dad's ramen right about now. Or my mom's Canadian bacon breakfast with poached eggs and ham. Mmm…" She sighed and gazed at the pile of fish. "I can almost smell it!"

Lee grinned. "My mom and dad don't cook much, and when they do cook, it's nothing fancy," she told Kim. "But the one thing I'd like to have is two Big Macs with onion rings, French fries covered in ketchup and vinegar, chicken nuggets and a extra large strawberry milkshake." 

Kim looked awed. "You can eat all that?"

"Yup, she can. With plenty of room to spare," Holly said. 

Tina laughed. "What about you?"

"Me?" Holly thought hard. "Um…well, Lee's right, my parents aren't so good at cooking. My fave foods are udon and sashimi, so yeah, I guess I could go for some of that right now."

"A big chocolate cake!" Mike called out excitedly. "With extra-thick icing and cherries on top!"

Kiko followed with, "Strawberry shortcake!"

"My dad's prizewinning fruit salad!" Tina cried.

"Shrimp scampi in saffron sauce," Lauren offered. 

Chris laughed. "Ew! Give me a steak _covered_ in mushrooms and onions any day!"

"I'm a vegetarian," Deanna put in. "Any of you guys ever tried broccoli salad? I swear, it's good," she added when everyone gagged. "Really! There's Caesar dressing in it, and croutons, and cheese, and broccoli…"

"Broccoli? Get real!" Hikaru giggled. "What I want is an ice cream sundae with extra whipping cream, and extra cherries, and extra nuts, and extra chocolate sauce…"

Cleo got this distant look on her face. "Mmm…chocolate. Chocolate covered rice balls," she sighed. "Or Morinaga chocolate bars. I'll settle for both."

"Chocolate freak," Jenna teased her. "I'd rather pig out on an extra large pizza with everything on it! That includes, but sure as hell isn't limited to pineapple, octopus, anchovies, tomatoes, pickles, bacon, shrimp, ham, all the fixings." 

Leon stuck his finger down his throat. "PICKLES? Gag me!" he laughed. "All I really wanna pig out on right now is a foot-long sub."

Kinaka sighed. "My dad makes the best Greek salad in the universe," she said. "He puts extra black olives and extra feta cheese in. He doesn't make it often, but when he does, he always makes Greek stuff to go with it, like gyros and pastitsio."

Everyone looked at eachother and sighed. 

  
"Damn nostalgia," Cleo muttered. "We don't have to do this to ourselves. Why are we fantasizing about food when we can't even get a half-decent meal? Sorry, Chris," she added hastily. "But think about it. Why are we torturing ourselves?"

Jenna patted her sister on the back. "Because we know we're going home," she said. "And speaking of which, maybe we oughta try to find our way outta this freaky-ass parallel universe. All in favor?"

"Wait," Deanna said. "Before we do anything, I propose that we go back to Gennai's house and recharge the laptop. We need to contact our parents, and we can't do that unless we have our one main means of communication down."

  
"Good point," Lee mused. "All right then. Let's go, troops!"

It didn't take very long to get to Gennai's abandoned home. It looked no better than it had the last time they'd been there, and even worse. It looked as though someone had had a tantrum and ripped the place apart. The couch was slashed, with the stuffing coming out of it. There was a hole the size of a full-grown man in the drywall, and a hole almost as big was in on the ceiling. There was also a pool of blood on the floor, reminiscent of the struggle that Gennai had put up when he was taken.

"Gawd, what a mess!" Deanna cried out. "I always told Gennai he oughta hire a maid service."

"Not that it would have done any good," Cleo added. "Hey, any chance I can recharge the batteries in my penlight?" 

Lauren quickly found an outlet to charge the laptop on. After it was plugged in, she threw herself on the couch and stretched out. "All I need now is a bowl of popcorn and 'Practical Magic' on DVD," she said lazily. 

Kinaka crossed the room and sat on her. "Don't hog the couch!" she laughed, tickling Lauren until she started to squirm.

"Get offa me!" she squeaked, grabbing one of the torn pillows and flinging it. It missed and hit Hikaru, who walloped Lauren right back. In no time at all, everyone was attempting to hit eachother with the couch pillows and tickle the crap outta eachother at the same time. Their Digimon were bouncing around all over the place, playfully nipping at eachother and bouncing onto people's heads. It ended when Leon put a headlock on Holly and she judo-kicked him where it matters. 

"Now that we're all done screwing around," Holly said coolly while her brother scowled at her from the floor, "we might as well see if the laptop is charged up enough."

It had only taken the forty-five minutes they'd been playing around for the computer to be fully charged. Lauren whistled and commented, "He must be getting a great electrical service!"

In no time at all, they had the laptop booted up and online. They quickly got into comm2.exe and there were their parents, looking agitated and worried.

"Oh my God!" Sora sobbed when she saw her kids. "I thought…I thought…"

"Never mind what you thought, Mom," Lee told her. "The laptop just ran out of batteries, that's all. We're at Gennai's old place now, so we were able to charge it up again."

Tania began to wail. Kari rocked her baby gently and smiled at her children. "I'm just so glad to see you're all right," she said in a weary voice.

  
Hikaru surveyed her mother. She didn't look too good. She was pale, and there were shadows under her eyes. "Mom, you look sick again," she said worriedly. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Kari assured her. "It's just that I was so worried about you, and Tania's got colic…Well, she'll be fine. And so will I, now that you're safe."

Mike was bouncing on his toes. "Mommy, we beat that mean old Sabinemon!" he cried excitedly. "Our Digimon digivolved to the ultimate level! It was soooo cool, Daddy, you shoulda seen it…"

"I wish I could have," Izzy said wistfully. "It's been many a year since I was in the Digital World."

"Cleo, Jenna, I hope you haven't been fighting eachother," Yolei said sharply. 

Jenna and Cleo burst out laughing. "Do pillow fights count?" Jenna giggled.

"Anyhoo, it's good that you kids contacted us again," Davis said. "I was starting to wonder, you know…"

"Dad, we can take care of ourselves," Kim said indignantly.

Davis's wife, Danica (or Dean, as he called her) started laughing. "That's my girl!" she crowed.   


"I think we'll be home soon," Chris said to his dad. "I can't say I'm looking forward to it. We're going to have a lot of stupid crap to catch up on when we get back to school!"

Cody started. "Damn!" he cried out. "Why didn't we think of that? We're gonna have to think up some pretty good excuses for them! Chris can't exactly afford to forfeit his credit, if you know what I mean."

"Dad, we know I suck in school, but that's no reason to say that!" Chris argued.

"OK…before this turns into a screaming match, I guess we should go," Kinaka said quickly. "Been peachy keen to see ya, Dad."

"But Kina—" Matt started before something cut them off.

"What's happening?" Jenna asked.

Lauren peered at the screen. "I'm not so sure," she muttered, hitting the side of the laptop. "Stupid piece of crap!"

"Lauren, don't do that!" Mike admonished her.

"Look!" Holly said suddenly in a hushed tone. She pointed to a new window on the screen that was slowly getting bigger. Inside the window on the screen was…

"Gennai!" Lee cried out. "Hey!"

"I've found a way to transport you children near to the place where I am being held," he wheezed. He looked sick and pale, and his voice was coming out in shallow wheezes. "It's on Corona Island, in the village near Fire Cloud. But I warn you…there's been a death in the royal family. Sabinemon's parents have just died, leaving their last child Wrathmon heir to their dark legacy. Beware of their supporters."

"How are we supposed to get to that whack place anyway?" Tina asked.

In reply, a blast of white light shot out of the laptop and swallowed them up. When the light went away, they were being outside the gates to a hatching ground like Primary Village.

"Where…the bloody hell…are we?" Lee gasped out. She'd landed rather painfully on her chest.

Holly looked around. "If I knew, I would tell you," she said. "It looks pretty weird. Do you think Gennai actually managed to get us to Corona Island?"

A sudden blare of bagpipes in the distance answered her question. There was obviously a funeral procession coming toward them.

"Where do we go?" Kinaka hissed.

"Umm…" Suddenly, Lauren spied a building inside the gates of the hatching ground. It looked almost like a mausoleum. "Over there!"

They pushed the gates open and ran full tilt to the building. They got to the door just as the funeral procession began to come into view.

"Who wants to bet they'll come in here?" Tina asked. "I don't like this idea, guys."

"Who cares?" Lauren scoffed. "It may be a freaking mausoleum or something, but who knows? Maybe we can hide in here until they go away. Look around you, sis. Does it look like there's anywhere else to hide?" 

Tina surveyed the barren plain, dotted with grey and black Digi-eggs. "No."

"Then _come on_, you scaredy-cat!"

Cleo whipped out her newly-charged penlight, and Rubymon spat a ball of flames into the air for backup. They ran into the left corridor, hoping to find some place to hide themselves. After about five minutes, they heard the wailing bagpipes cease the mournful song and the sound of pounding footsteps beginning.

"This way!" Lauren mouthed, leading them all into a dark antechamber. They heard the footsteps go right over their heads, and breathed easier.

Kinaka looked a little edgy. "What if they find us?" she asked in a whispered hush. "I mean, come on, those guys are gonna be more than a little pissed that the granddaughter of those dead Digimon was involved with the ones who killed the Dark Princess. Not that I mind being in your company, guys," she added hurriedly. "But I'm worried. They'll kill us all if they—"

"Shut up!" Lauren hissed. "I think they're leaving now. What say we go now?"

Quietly, they crept out of the antechamber. The thud of footsteps overhead was seemingly in front of them now, heading away. It looked like they were going to be all right.

"Which way?" Leon asked Lauren. "You brought us in here, after all."

Lauren stopped in her tracks. "Don't you guys want to explore this nuthouse?" she asked, hands on hips. "If this really is a tomb for some of Kinaka's ancestors, maybe we could learn something about those evil royals and find out enough about them to defeat the last dark descendant. What do you think?"

Kinaka grimaced. "I'd rather not, but what the hell. Let's go."

They crept along the corridors, following the lit torches that the mourners had forgotten to extinguish. At the very end of a twisting hallway was a door with a plaque bearing a picture of a crown on it. Around the crown, in Digi-code, were written the words, "Dominatio Per Malum." 

(A/N: I got that from a Fear Street book.)

"Izzat Latin or something?" Chris asked, his brow furrowed. 

"It means 'Power through evil,' and I guess that's my family's motto," Kinaka said disdainfully. 

"Some motto," Lauren quipped as she pulled the door to the tomb open.

The tomb was fairly dark, with tall, black candles for light. There were twelve smaller biers encased in glass, surrounding two larger ones. The smaller biers formed a half circle. 

"Well, let's see who we got here," Kinaka said, stepping up to the first bier. There was a Black Gear under the glass, and nothing more. 

"_Devimon, born 4000 B.C. Vanquished 2027 A.D.," _Lauren read. "Must be MetalDevimon or something, with the name he was born with."

There were eleven others to go.

The bier next to it held a pair of sunglasses. On the plaque was written, "_Etemon, born 3981 B.C. Vanquished 1998 A.D._"

With the plaque that read, "_Myotismon. Born 4502 B.C. Vanquished 1998 A.D.", _was a red mask in the shape of a vampire bat.

"_MetalSeadramon. Born 3850 B.C. Vanquished 1998 A.D. _That fish scale thing is really pretty, but it's as big as a dinner plate," Lee said about MetalSeadramon's relics.

"I like this hammer," Mike said at the place that read: "_Puppetmon. Born 3850 B.C. Vanquished 1998 A.D."_

"Cool cannon!" Kiko said at: "_Machinedramon. Born 3850 B.C. Vanquished 1998 A.D."_

The bier for "_Piedmon. Born 3850 B.C. Vanquished 1998 A.D."_ held a large white handkerchief.

"_Apocalymon. Born 5438 B.C. Vanquished 1998 A.D."_ contained the eight broken Crests belonging to the original Digidestined.

"_Arukenimon. Born 832 B.C. Vanquished 2002 A.D." _and _"Mummymon. Born 832 B.C. Vanquished 2002 A.D."_ both contained sparkling dust.

Kinaka was silent as she approached her mother's bier. "_Sabinemon, or Sabrina O'Reilley Ishida. Born 4000 B.C. Vanquished 2027 A.D.," _she read. Then she gazed inside the glass, and saw a picture of her mother in her human form, relaxing on the beach with her and her dad. Kinaka was only six in the photo.

__

The last family vacation we had, before Dad was called for the Jupiter Project and Mom had to take me to Kobe for a year to stay with Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Malcolm, she thought sadly. _I remember being mad at Dad because I thought he wouldn't be back for my birthday…but he came home the day before, ten months later, with a musical jewelry box he'd gotten in Houston for my birthday present. I remember I kept Mom's pendant and my flame earrings in there after she disappeared…and after they found her body, I started wearing them…_

Her thoughts were interrupted by Lauren, who bumped into her in an attempt to see the largest biers. 

"_Kildramon and Sibylmon,"_ she read. "_Co-rulers of Corona Island. Born in the Cataclysm, when the Digital World was formed. Vanquished 2027 A.D." _

"One hell of a long life," Kinaka said. "I can't even imagine living that long!" 

From out of the shadows, a wizened little Digimon came out of the corner. He held a mop in one hand, and a lantern in the other. "Hey, can't you people be quiet? This is a tomb, not a stadium!" 

Then he took a good look at Kinaka's bewildered face.

"It's YOU!" he shouted, pointing his mop at her. "You're the girl in the picture! The girl that our Princess Sabinemon almost gave everything up for! You and your friends are Digidestined, aren't you?"

"Um, yeah," Kinaka replied. "Pleased to meet you. Sorry we disturbed this crypt, but we were wondering about who's all in my lineage, and—"

"GUARDS!" the Digimon cried out, waving him mop and splashing them all. "GUARDS! THERE ARE DIGIDESTINED IN THE ROYAL CRYPT! DISPOSE OF THEM, I SAY!"

From out of nowhere, fourteen black-garbed soldier Digimon appeared and grabbed hold of them.

"Hey!" Kim squeaked in protest as one of them roughly grabbed her hair. "That's attached, ya know!"

"TAKE THEM AWAY!" the little Digimon yelled. He was sloshing soapy water everywhere by now.

"We'll take them to the Fire Cloud priestess," one of the soldiers droned. "She will determine whether or not these infidels will be sacrificed."

"Sacrificed?" Lee shrieked. 

"Oh shit, we're in for it now!" Cleo yelled.


	13. First Degree Burns

Oooh! Fire and brimstone and sacrifices, oh my!

****

Next Generation: …And So It Begins (Again)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: FIRST DEGREE BURNS

"I get the feeling they don't like us," Holly said dryly as the guards pulled them down the dusty lane outside the gates. 

"And what gives you that idea?" Leon hissed. "We are so utterly screwed it's not even funny."

"Shut up!" Hikaru yelled at them. "You want to screw us over even more?"

The guards looked highly amused. "Pitiful humans," one chuckled. "Let's see if the prophetess will let you live."

They presently came upon the gates to a small village. Unlike the gates to the hatching grounds, these gates were wooden.

"Open," one guard said in a high voice. The gates swung open to admit them, then closed behind them.

The village was small and simple. There was one main narrow cobblestone road, lined with tiny shops and modest cabins with thatched roofs. 

Rubymon growled. "I could set this place ablaze. It's perfect kindling," she snarled. 

Tina looked at her sharply. "Don't do it. You don't know if these guys will get nasty on us."

Right at the end of the lane was a giant throne. On it sat a green-faced humanoid Digimon with a snake twining itself around her neck. Beside her were torches lit with green flame.

"So!" she barked in their faces. "I suppose you have a good explanation for why you were in our royal crypt?"

"This girl," a guard said, pushing Kinaka to the base of the throne, "is the daughter of the Dark Princess. Half-human spawn. What shall we do with her and her filthy Digidestined comrades?" he asked. 

"Hmm…" the prophetess said, wondering. "I say…kill them."

"KILL US?!?" the Digidestined cried in protest. 

"Sacrifice them at Fire Cloud," she continued, a smirk on her lips. "Kill the half-human slowly."

"Hey!" Kinaka shouted indignantly. "I should have some freaking status around here! I'm the daughter of a princess, for crying out loud! Don't I get the royal treatment?"

"Pitiful child," the prophetess smirked. "If only you knew…"

A guard jumped forward. "Tell her nothing, Cassamon!" he cried. 

"I will tell her what I want, you blundering fool!" she screamed, throwing a handful of black flames at him. Shrieking, he burned to a crisp in front of them.

"Now that we have him out of the way, our dear misguided illegitimate half-human must be enlightened with the truth," Cassamon continued. "Child, your mother is the spawn of a Virus Digimon and a Data Digimon. This turned her into a Vaccine-type. She was fully converted to Virus about five years ago, but before then, she was a human."

"Spare me the history. Get to the point," Kinaka demanded.

Cassamon scowled. "That thing you called your mother fell out with the Royals because she had children with her father and with her brother. This was actually a normal practice, seeing as her sister/aunt/mother Sibylmon and her sister LadyDevimon had children with Kildramon as well. But her third child, Puppetmon, was born with a defect that made him part Vaccine. His defect was not discovered until her youngest child was born. So her father and her youngest child, Piedmon, sealed her away in the Lake of Fire. Her body was tortured into a human form for a century. She was released into the mortal plane, and married your Digidestined father. The rest is history."

Kinaka yawned. "Nice story, but it lacks the usual happily-ever-after."

"So no dice, girlie. No royal treatment, no relaxing spa, nothing. Just fire and brimstone and ashes…to…ashes. Which reminds me." Cassamon grinned. "Guards! Take them away!" she commanded.

"Kinaka, why the hell couldn't your mother have been a model citizen?" Lauren groaned as they were taken away.

"Up the mountain! Move it!" a guard barked, shoving his rifle into Lee's back. 

"Watch the kidneys!" she shot back at him. _If he shoves that thing in my back again, I am going to take it and shove it up his ass!_ she vowed. _Then he can hemorrhage to death, like I probably will if he doesn't stop that!_

Twenty-five miles across the land and six hundred feet up the mountain, they were nearly at the summit of Fire Cloud. They could smell a sulfurous odor wafting down on them, and above them, a burning fire raged.

"Oh, great," Chris groaned. "What was that about ashes to ashes?"

Kiko looked incredibly pissed off. "We were just looking!" he said angrily. "This is so not fair!"

"Kina, whatever's left of me after we're incinerated is gonna kick your ass!" Lauren growled. 

"It's not my fault my mother was a screw-up!"

After an agonizingly long time, they were finally at the top of Fire Cloud. A gigantic pit filled to the brim with leaping flames was at the centre of the plateau. 

"This is wonderful," Leon said dryly. "This is what I've always wanted. Yeah, I've always wanted to be tossed into a raging fire and become a pile of ashes. This was soooo worth living for."

"Shut up, Bubby!" Lee yelled. 

They were shoved to the edge of the pit. "Goodbyeeeeeeeeee," one of the guards trilled. 

That's when Kim started to raise a little hell. 

"You bastards!" she screeched, flying at them. She scratched "her" guard in the face and hit him in the stomach. While he was doubled over in pain, she kicked him into the pit. His agonized screams were drowned out amidst the cacophony that followed. 

"SEIZE THEM!" the lead guard yelled. 

"LET'S KICK SOME ASS!" Lee yelled. 

All of their Digimon DNA digivolved. The seven Digimon attacked the higher ranks, while the kids attacked the stragglers. One by one, the guards went flying down the fiery pit. 

The Digimon separated from their shared bodies, now back in their Rookie forms. "Yeah!" Pikkimon squealed. "Nothing like a good old-fashioned fight! Now where's my dinner?"

Jenna laughed and scooped her up. "Maybe now we can look for Gennai!" she said brightly. "After all, those goons are gone."

"Think again," a loud voice boomed. All of them looked around, trying to determine who had said that. 

"Nobody's here," Mike said, looking puzzled. 

Suddenly, Deanna went white. "LOOK!" she screamed, pointing at the pit and trembling. 

A huge, black clawed hand was coming out of the flaming pit. Before they had time to run or even scream, it had pulled them all down. Flames danced around them and darkness enveloped them before they all mercifully blacked out.


	14. Dark Zone

Muahaha. New sagas, starting…nnnnnnnnnow!

****

Next Generation: …And So It Begins (Again)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: DARK ZONE

Before they even opened their eyes, they knew that they were all in danger. They were in a dark chasm somewhere, surrounded by jagged rocks and utter darkness. Not a single living thing (other than themselves) testified that there was any other types of intelligent life nearby.

"Where is everybody?" Lauren cried out. "Kina? Usaiamon!"

"We're here!" Usaiamon called to her, grabbing the hem of her shirt. "It's too dark. Rubymon, ya wanna give us some light here?"

A ball of flames shot into the air, right by Lauren's left ear. She shrieked and scuttled sideways, and bumped smack into Kim, who knocked Tina down in turn.

"Damn it, Lauren!" Kim yelled. "Where did everybody go?"

Rubymon's fireball rose above them and began to get bigger. Now they all could see eachother.

Jenna huddled closer to Leon and pulled Pikkimon into her arms. "Something's out there," she shivered. "I can feel it. It's freaking me right out."

"Don't worry about it!" Cleo snapped. "You're scaring me."

Lee peered into the darkness. "I think she's right," she mused. "I can feel it too. Someone's watching us."

As if in reply, a scaly hand crept onto her shoulder.

Lee lost her head altogether and screamed her head off. That set off Starymon, who let out a high-pitched scream and bolted. Soon, everyone was freaking out and screaming.

"Calm down!" a rough old voice said. "You'll make me go even deafer!"

Lee finally got the nerve to turn around. There behind her was Gennai, looking exhausted but happy to see them. There was still a pool of blood on his robes.

"I warned you to stay away from them," he wheezed. "But it doesn't matter. You've come."

"Why did they throw us into that pit?" Kiko asked. He pinched his nose and made a face. "That brimstone smell really stinks."

Gennai looked a little grim. "That's their sun-worshipping ritual," he explained. "Usually they gouge out their victims' hearts with tongs and feed them to the Seeress priestess, but you must have really angered them to have them just shove you in the pit."

"All we did was look in the crypt," Kinaka complained. 

"Well, curiosity killed the cat," Gennai quipped. "Listen, I need you to come with me. It's not safe out here."

Tina looked a little apprehensive. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"There's a hut at the end of this chasm. I found it when I was sent to this dark place," he told them. "It's small, but it will accommodate us all."

They all began to trudge off toward the darker end of the chasm. The ball of fire Rubymon had lit was still high in the sky. 

All of a sudden, Leon staggered and moaned in pain. 

"What is it?" Jenna asked, alarmed. 

He put his hand on her shoulder to steady himself. "It's nothing," he said shortly. "It's just my head. All of a sudden, it started to hurt where MetalDevimon hit me."

Jenna stared at him. "Weird," she commented. "The last time that happened was when Sabinemon started casting those spells on us…" 

Leon just shrugged and kept walking. 

They finally reached the end. There in front of them was a desolate little shack, with its windows boarded up and a fair few holes in the walls.

"That's it?" Lauren said, her eyes wide. "You could sure use a decorator!" 

"It looks all right inside," Gennai shrugged. "Well, in we go, children."

He was right; it _did_ look okay on the inside. Big, overstuffed chairs and couches were placed around the room. On one wall, there was a small television and a bookcase, and a fireplace on the opposite wall. Instead of electric lights, there were candles illuminating the place.

"See? I sure know how to make exile comfortable, don't I?" he grinned, ushering them in.

The moment Leon crossed the threshold of the shack, he doubled over like he'd been kicked in the stomach. He was clutching his head again.

"Leon!" Lee cried. "What is it?" 

A chill suddenly swept through the room, blowing the fire and all the candles out.

"What the bloody hell is going on?" Kinaka screamed. 

The candles all relit themselves, this time with green light. The fireplace roared to life with black flames. 

Jenna paled and pointed at Gennai, who was calmly standing in front of the fire on the hearthrug. "Look at him!" she yelled. "That isn't Gennai!" 

Another gust of wind blasted though the room. Gennai's wrinkled old face became large and scaly…his body elongated…he was sprouting wings…

"WHAT IS THAT THING?" Mike cried out. 

"Not another damn shape-shifter!" Kinaka groaned.

Suddenly, the thing that was posing as Gennai reared up. The thatched roof burst off, and they saw that whatever it was, was almost sixty feet long. It was long, scaly, and had wings and a tail. Horns sprouted from its triangle-shaped head. Its whole body was patterned with silver, purple and black scales. It had no limbs. It hovered over them, showing off its fangs that were almost three times as long as a full-grown man.

Deanna was trembling and white as she spoke. "I think we've found the final dark descendant," she said through clenched teeth.

Kinaka stepped up. "Hey! Uncle Whatever-Your-Name-Is! What did you do to Gennai?" she called up to him.

The gigantic Digimon laughed in delight. "He's somewhere where he can't make any more contact with you."

"You killed him? You bastard!" Lauren spat.

He laughed again, showering them with spit. "No," he chortled. "He's still alive…but barely. After he transported you to Corona Island, he had used up the remainder of his strength. He's hanging by a thread in another dimension…but you need not know where."

"Who, or what the hell are you?" Cleo yelled.

He bared his teeth and spat a mouthful of iridescent blue flames in the air. "I am Wrathmon," he told them. "Brother and uncle of your dearly departed mother, I'm afraid," he added to Kinaka. 

"What kind of a scary-ass family was I born into?" she shrieked in indignation.

"One that you'll be joining in death. Say goodbye, Digidestined! _Dark Zone!_" he shouted. A black mist enveloped them. 

"Digivolve, dammit!" Lee managed to tell Starymon, choking out every word. 

Within moments, all the Digimon were in their Ultimate forms and were attacking Wrathmon. They used their best attacks, but even their best didn't even faze him. He floated there, with barely a scratch on him, laughing at them." 

"You fools!" he taunted them. "You thought you were so good. Well, guess what? You're history! _Dimension Drop!_" 

A huge hole ripped open underneath their very feet. It sucked them down fast, even plucking their Digimon out of the air. Time and space seemed to meld together as the hole closed over their heads, sealing them in darkness.

When they had all stopped screaming their heads off, they realized that their feet weren't touching the ground. In fact (as Chris was quick to point out), there didn't seem to be _anything_ to touch down on. There was a bit of light, enough so that they could see eachother, but other than that it was pretty much dark.

"Where are we now?" Holly groaned. "First we're sucked into Corona Island, then into that fire pit thing, now here…"

"If I knew where we are, I'd probably have told you by now," Cleo griped. "This is even worse than Fire Cloud Mountain. We're floating in a freaking nothing place, for crying out loud."

Jenna elbowed her sister sharply. "Maybe we can practice aerobatics, or whatever they're called," she laughed. She turned a few backflips and bumped smack into Leon. 

"Whoops," she giggled. "But hey, it's fun!"

"Who really cares?" Hikaru sighed. She got into a sitting position and sat cross-legged, floating in space. "And why bother trying to get out? That thing is going to eat us. Or charbroil us alive. Or swallow us whole, or something."

Kinaka nodded. "She's right," she agreed. "I'm not facing that thing again. Everywhere we go in this damn planet, I'm related to someone evil. This is just so not fair!"

Everyone nodded, and made agreeing remarks.

"She's right."

"We can stay here and rot for all I care."

"Who cares if there's a way out? I'm not taking it."

"Me too. I'm just going to make myself comfortable…"

All of them stretched themselves out into comfortable positions, and stayed there floating. Everyone, that is, except for Kiko and Mike. 

"What are you guys doing?" Mike cried. "Come on, guys, we need to get out of here!" 

Lauren turned to look at him. "Face it, squirt. We're not getting out of here," she said dully. "Look around you. Do you see a door outta here? Didn't think so." 

"Hikaru, don't just sit there! Get up!" Kiko screamed at his sister.

Hikaru didn't answer. She just looked at Kiko and grunted. 

Kiko yelled in horror. His sister's bright blue eyes were starting to fade. Her pupils were dilated into slits, and the whites were completely gone. Her eyes were now a murky shade of greyish blue.

"What's going on?" Mike cried in alarm. 

Kiko looked scared. "I don't know," he told his friend. "But even our Digimon are doing it. Look at them."

It was true. Tyumon and Empramon were curled up into little balls at their feet.

"What do we do?" Mike asked in a hushed voice. 

"Hmmm…I don't know." 

"You don't have any plans?" 

"Nope."   
  
"Well, neither do I."

The two little boys stared helplessly at their comrades. They were all floating there, looking apathetic and colorless. Their bodies suddenly began to fade into black and white. 

Kiko and Mike knew that they had to think of something, and fast.

__

What do we do now? Kiko thought. _That's my sister over there. I have to help her…I have to help all of them. But how?_

We have to get them to get up, Mike thought. _We just have to! If we don't, that guy who's Kinaka's uncle will eat us up or something! I have to think…have to think…_ He rubbed his eyes wearily.

"WAKE UP!" Kiko suddenly screamed at them. "WAKE UP, OR I'LL MAKE YOU WAKE UP!" 

Mike joined in. "WAKE UP, YOU GUYS!" he shouted. "I AM NOT GOING TO LET YOU SIT THERE WHILE THE WHOLE DIGITAL WORLD GOES TO PIECES!"

Lauren fixed her murky green eyes on him. 

__

It's working! they both thought with glee.

"Get up! Get up!" they chanted in unison. Their Crests glowed with silver and gold light on their chests.

"Get up! Get up!" 

Tyumon and Empramon stirred…uncurled…stretched…

"GET UP! GET UP _RIGHT NOW!_"

Suddenly, the light from their Crests blasted them backwards. The light shone and enveloped all the Digidestined. They all woke out of their reverie, their eyes returning to normal. Color flooded their faces again. They blinked and looked around them, dazed.

Lee was the first to speak. "Wha…what happened?" she asked. 

"I felt kinda blah, and then…well, I don't remember," Kinaka said, rubbing her eyes. "One hell of a catnap that was. I'm still tired!"

Everyone laughed. 

Mike suddenly noticed something. "Hey! We're on the ground!" he realized. 

It was true. As they watched, the darkness around them began to disintegrate. They were back in the dark chasm, but Wrathmon was no longer there. 

"We're back," Kim said disdainfully. "Well, at least we can find that creep and kick his ass! Right, guys?" 

Jenna wasn't paying attention to her. Instead, she was looking at the other end of the chasm. 

"Look," she said in a quiet voice. "Over there. There's something at the end of the chasm. Do you see it?" 

They crept closer, in case it was Wrathmon playing tricks again. Once they were near enough, though, they saw that a small figure was tied to a boulder. 

"Who is it?" Holly asked. 

Jenna dared to go up and see who it was. She lifted the person's head up, and gasped in horror. 

"Guys…it's Gennai!" she called back. "For real this time! Look, when it was Wrathmon showing us an illusion, he looked okay. But this is the real Gennai, I know it is!" 

Gennai lifted his head and gazed at her. His currant-black eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot. "You must…listen," he wheezed. "I have a…prophecy…but there's not much…time…"


	15. Prophecy and Legacy

Argh! In my honest opinion, I think that the last two chapters truly sucked. Sorry 'bout that. Anyhoo, I'm including another history lesson to tell you about how Gennai got there and why he's old again. 

****

Next Generation: …And So It Begins (Again)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: PROPHECY AND LEGACY

"Wrathmon told us you were in a different dimension!" Lee said incredulously.

Gennai managed a wry chuckle. "I was. But he underestimated me. I escaped, and came back here to find you. You see, I knew that you had been caught by Cassamon's army and were thrown into the fire pit. Wrathmon caught me trying to get you out of there and decided that he wanted to finish you off himself. I'm glad that he didn't." Having said too much, Gennai dropped his head back onto his chest. 

"We've got to get you untied," Holly said desperately. "Lee, didn't you bring your Swiss Army knife with you?"

"Um…" Lee rummaged through her duffel bag, until she found the knife. "Aha!" 

She immediately set to work cutting through the ropes. But, since the ropes were incredibly thick, the teeny blade on her knife wasn't doing much. 

A flash of silver caught Kim's eye. Curious, she slipped away and went to investigate. Not too far away was a boulder, and in it was a silver katana blade.

"Guys, check it out!" she called. "I found a katana! We can use it to get Gennai out of here!" 

Kinaka snorted. "Get real, Kim," she laughed. "It's stuck in solid rock. What do you think you are, King Arthur or something?"

Kim rubbed her hands together, placed her hands on the hilt of the sword, and pulled. It came out as easily as a cork out of a bottle of wine.

"Well," Kinaka said, her eyes wide. "Open mouth, insert foot."

"I'd say so." Kim raised the katana high. It glinted eerily in the waning light. "Watch it, guys. I'm gonna cut the ropes off, so stand clear or you might find yourself without a head!"

She swung. Everyone watched as the long blade sliced through the ropes binding Gennai. As they fell from his body, he dropped to the ground.

"Whoa!" Jenna cried, helping him up. "Easy there, Gennai."

"Thank you," he said. He let go of her arm and took a few wobbly steps. "I suppose I'll be fine now."

"What was it you said about a prophecy?" Deanna asked. "I remember you used to tell me of the old ones you gave the original Digidestined."

"I never gave this one to them, because they were not concerned with it directly," he replied, pacing. "But you will all need to know it. It concerns the Dark Descendants and you, Digidestined."

"Then stop stalling and tell us about it!" Lauren all but shouted.

Gennai grinned at her, and began.

"Many changes will arise after the defeat of the Dark Princess," he intoned. "The whole Digital World as we know it will begin to disintegrate if the Digidestined do not intervene. The final Dark Descendant will attempt to kill them, but if he is unsuccessful in his attempt, one unknown to they who fight the darkness will arise and conquer them. A dark and difficult time will ensue, but the independent one alone has the power to free them. If they prevail, peace will be restored and all those made old will be young again."

Fourteen pairs of blank eyes stared at him.

Gennai chuckled again. "It's my way to be cryptic. I suppose your parents neglected to tell you that about me. I also believe that they didn't tell you I was not always this way."

"Old, you mean?" Kiko piped up. Hikaru elbowed him sharply in the ribs.

"Yes, old." He looked a little sad. "I am as old as Kildramon and Sibylmon were, yet I am of a race that does not show their age. Almost fifty years ago, the Dark Masters attacked the entities known as the Gatemasters. I was on the scene just as Piedmon was making off with the Digi-Eggs and Crests belonging to your parents. Piedmon cast an aging spell on me, to make me old and feeble. When he was vanquished, I began to regain my youth, and after Azulongmon was brought forth from his exile, I was fully restored by the Orbs of Hope and Light."

"My parents' Crests!" Hikaru said brightly. 

"Right," he nodded. "Anyway, as soon as MetalDevimon was resurrected from the Dark Whirlpool, he was reunited with his sister Sabinemon. They were wed in the traditional Virus-type ceremony, and began wreaking their havoc over the Digital World. After their brutal defeats and exiles, they were more than bitter and vengeful at my part in keeping them out. They hunted me down and reinstated Piedmon's curse."

"But how did you get them exiled?" Holly asked.

"It was I who discovered that Sabinemon was part Data. Somehow my findings leaked to the Royals, who had their impartial judge Cassamon seal her fate. She was cast into the Lake of Fire for a century, to burn and be tortured into a human form before being sent to Earth. She had every likeness of a sixteen-year-old when she was released into your world, but she was really thousands of years old. MetalDevimon, on the other hand, escaped vanquishing at the hands of Angemon and plunged himself into the Dark Whirlpool to rebuild his shattered body. I had a part in this by giving the Digidestined power to vanquish him. Unfortunately, it was there that he found the black pearl of Chronus, a jewel that was imbued with unspeakable evil. He used that to piece himself back together."

Leon scowled. "He made that thing into an amulet. I wore it," he said darkly. 

"Be thankful that you survived," Gennai said wryly. "If you had worn it any longer, your soul would have died. You would have been just like the Dark Duo."

The sound of rushing wings suddenly drowned out anything Gennai had left to say. Wrathmon loomed over them, grinning.

"So! You got away!" he sneered. "No matter. I guess I'll have to make your fate a little more…permanent."

"Watch out!" Lee shrieked as he shot flames directly at them. 

Everyone hit the ground. "What do we do now?" Tina asked.

"Prepare to be destroyed!" Wrathmon cackled. 

Lee closed her eyes and willed herself to be strong as flames rushed over them again.


	16. Subterranean

Oi! First a fire-spewing ash pit, now a fire-breathing sea serpent! Are they doomed? (Doubt it.)

****

Next Generation: …And So It Begins (Again)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: SUBTERRANEAN

"Ah-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!" Wrathmon cackled. Wave after wave of fire pressed upon them, making it impossible to move. One sudden movement and they would be a pile of ashes.

Jenna tried to get up, but Wrathmon saw her and blasted his black flames at her. 

"Jenna, get down!" Leon, Fangmon and Pikkimon yelled at the same time. They pulled her to the ground as fire raged over her head, almost singeing her hair.

She got back up and stood her ground. "Nobody is kicking my ass without a fair fight!" she declared. 

"Don't be so stupid! He'll charbroil you alive!" Cleo shrieked. "Jenn, for pete's sake, HIT THE DIRT!" 

Jenna refused to budge. "Hey! Dragon Breath!" she called up. "Get your scaly ass over here so I can ram my foot up it!"

Pikkimon covered her eyes. "I can't watch," she moaned.

Wrathmon ceased his wanton destruction for a moment, deciding whether or not it was worth incinerating her on the spot. 

"Dammit, Pikkimon! Digivolve!" Jenna cried, holding out her D-X.

"Pikkimon digivolve to…Ditramon!"

Fangmon stepped forward. "I'll help her! Fangmon digivolve to…Darkmon!"

"Ditramon…"

  
"Darkmon…"

"DNA Digivolve to…"

"Avivamon!"

Avivamon took to the sky. "A little hand here, guys?" it called out.

All the Digimon DNA Digivolved and started attacking. "Get yourselves out of here!" Coeurimon yelled to them all. They obliged, running toward the opposite end of the chasm.

"I'm not going. Not yet!" Jenna said adamantly. She refused to budge. 

The others were far away now. Leon frantically tried to pull Jenna along, but she wouldn't go. 

"Dammit! Move your butt, Ichijouji!" he yelled at her. 

"No!" she cried, struggling under his grip. 

He yanked her arm roughly. "I don't care if you have the biggest anal-cranial inversion of the century!" he cried out. "You're coming with us whether you like it or not! I'm not letting someone I care for get burned to death!"

She stared at him. Having realized what he had just said, he blushed. 

"Oops," he said sheepishly. 

Jenna was still in a state of shock. Figuring that he could take advantage of that, he pulled her away from the battle scene. 

"But…Avivamon…" 

"It'll be all right. Avivamon and the other Digimon will hold him off until we're far enough away to hide. All right? Now stop being so damn cocky!"

"I'M NOT COCKY!" Jenna replied indignantly. 

The DNA Digimon were having a hard time trying to fend him off. Every time they tried to attack, he'd blast more fire at them. One of his blasts was ill aimed, and it struck the ground near Jenna and Leon. 

"Ahh!" she cried. 

"Run!" he yelled. 

They took off, eventually joining the others behind a shield of rock. 

"Where can we go? We can't just leave them!" Hikaru cried. 

"They'll find us," Gennai told them. "Now hurry!"

There was a cave nearby, its entrance seemingly too small for Wrathmon to go through. They took the opportunity and ran into the mouth of the cave, just as a piercing scream tore through the silent terrain.

"Tsukimon," Mike groaned. Kiko looked grim.

Presently, the little Rookies came running into the cave. "He's only slightly wounded," Mousiemon reported. "I doubt that he'll follow us, though."

"Good job," Cleo beamed, patting her Digimon's furry red head.

"I'm hungry," Tyumon complained to Mike. His scaly green hide was caked with dirt. "Haven't you got any food left?"

Mike dug through his knapsack. In the very bottom was a twisted-up bag about a quarter full of Sonic Sour Cream Doritos. 

Tina and Lauren wrinkled their noses. "Ew…" Lauren groaned. "How can you eat those things, Mike? They taste like baby puke!"

"You've eaten baby puke?"

"You know what I mean!" 

Mike laid the bag on the floor. Tyumon dove in, his long tail poking out of the bag. Empramon also went in after him. 

"Wait!" Lee called out. "Hold up with the munching for a second!" 

Empramon emerged, his beak full of chips. "What?" he asked after he swallowed, sounding annoyed. 

"How much food do we have left?" Lee asked. "I don't think we have enough for us all to eat."

Everyone began rummaging through their duffel bags and knapsacks. They began to spread out what they had left on the cave floor.

"I've got half a roll of butterscotch Life Savers," Leon reported, pulling the roll out of his pocket and tossing it in the middle of the floor.

"Three Morinaga chocolate bars, and a granola bar. Half-eaten, I might add," Hikaru said. Her food joined Leon's Life Savers.

"A bag of M&M Mini's, and Gummi Bears," Mike said. "And then there's my chips."

Tyumon looked a little embarrassed. "Not anymore," he said. Then he burped.

Jenna pulled out a paper bag. "Ew…" she said, her nose wrinkled. "I've got two caramel puffs and a chocolate-covered rice ball in here, but they're all squished."

They went into the pile anyway.

"Apple grapes," Deanna said, grinning. "These keep really well. Oh, and a coconut." 

"A Ring Pop," Kiko said, tossing it on the small pile. 

The others had nothing.

"OK," Lee said finally. "What about for drinks?"

Mike looked uncomfortable. "Well, I had two bottles of Gatorade, but we already drank them all."

"I had a bottle of Evian," Kinaka said. "But I used it when everyone was sick, so Auroramon could make us some ice."

"Anyone else have water bottles, empty or otherwise?"

Six 2-litre bottles and nine regular-sized water bottles dropped to the cave floor.

Lee grinned. "Well, we're not completely screwed. We can fill up the bottles somewhere. I'm certain there's a source of water in this place."

"Can we explore the cave first?" Holly asked. "No offense, sis, but your whole Survivor Australia attitude is a bit of a pain in the ass."

There was a long, twisting corridor that seemed to branch off into two directions. Everyone was too busy paying attention to that to want to worry about their impending food crisis. 

"All right," Lee sighed. "I'll put all the food and the bottles in my duffel bag. Let's go!" she cried. 

They trooped through the cave, and went down the corridor on the right. This passage led down, deep into the ground. Water from a leaky pipe above them dripped continually. 

"Why is there a pipe in here?" Kiko wondered. 

"Maybe there's a civilized city up ahead somewhere," Deanna mused. "Maybe we're in Kai or something, eh Gennai?"

"Perhaps."

Tina pulled the map out of her knapsack and studied it, by the light of Cleo's penlight. "We're actually on Server," she reported. "On an offshore island on the coast of the Digitethys Ocean. It's actually not that far from Corona Island."

"My sister, the cartographer," Lauren groaned. 

There was a dim light at the end of the tunnel. They crept toward it cautiously.

"Doesn't this strike you as ironic?" Chris asked everybody, looking amused.

"Does what strike us as ironic?" Hikaru queried. 

"The light at the end of the tunnel. I've always been told that lights at the end of long dark tunnels mean that you've died and are on your way to heaven or something."

"Chris?"

"Yeah?" 

"Shut up!"

They reached the end. There in front of them was a ruined city that still looked somewhat magnificent…despite the fact that they were deep underground.

"Cool, a subterranean base!" Leon said, looking pleased. "It looks like crap, but I like it!"

A bright-green Numemon slithered up to them. "Stop!" it cried. "Nobody goes through here! This is our terrain. You stay out!" 

"Relax," Hikaru told it. "We're only here because we're hiding from Wrathmon!"

Its eyes almost popped off of the stalks they were supported on. "It's…it's her," he breathed. "It's our Queen!" 

"Huh?!" Hikaru squeaked.

The Numemon bowed. "Oh, my apologies, much revered Queen," it quavered. "I am truly sorry for my rudeness. Of course you are welcome here. It's nice to see you again."

"I'm so glad I'm your cousin," Kinaka hissed to Hikaru as the Numemon bowed them through. "After finding out my whole mother's side is evil, it's a nice change to get they royal treatment."

Hikaru made a face. "Kina, you're a spoiled brat, you know that?"

"DON'T CALL ME KINA!"

They encountered a pack of Numemon in what looked like the city square. They instantly slithered up to Hikaru, hovering around her feet and looking elated.

"Queen Kari! Queen Kari!" they all squealed with delight. "You've returned to us! You've come to take us from this dark place!" 

Hikaru looked just as shocked as the rest of them. "Queen Kari?" she sputtered. "Wait, you guys have got it all wrong here! I am _so_ not your Queen! You must be talking about my mom!"

The little Numemon looked crushed. "You are Queen Kari's daughter?" they asked sadly, the stalks holding their eyes up drooping. 

"Yeah," she said, feeling uncomfortable. "Sorry to disappoint you."

"But…you can still help us!" one of them cried. "Our Queen once took some of her Digidestined friends to this place and freed our fathers and mothers! Now you must do the same for us!" 

Kinaka looked grossed out. "Aunt Kari was Queen of the Numemon?" she teased Hikaru. "Hell of a job!" 

"It probably wasn't voluntary," Hikaru said through the side of her mouth. 

Lauren faced the Numemon. "Why are you here?" she asked. 

"We were driven here by Wrathmon, after he killed all our parents," one wailed. "He rules this island with an iron fist and a fiery breath! We'll never escape!" 

"Sure you will," Lee said. She had a big smile on her face. "All we need is a little know-how, and a little thing I like to call digivolution."

Wrathmon burst into the city a few hours later. They were all ready for him, after Lee had outlined her plan. 

"Numemon, front and center!" Hikaru yelled. 

"NUME SLUDGE!" the hundreds of Numemon shouted. They lobbed blobs of bright pink goo at Wrathmon, who became covered in the sludge.

"Oh! Phew!" Hikaru, who was closest to the action, had gotten a whiff of the sludge. "THIS CRAP STINKS!"

The Numemon grinned. "Funny you should mention crap," one said. "That's what it is!" 

"NUME SLUDGE!" 

A second wave of pink sludge hit him. Wrathmon roared and blew flames at them. 

"Oh my gawd! You guys had better hope this stink doesn't kill us!" Tina groaned, holding her nose. 

A third wave of sludge was deployed. By now, Wrathmon was thoroughly pissed and was ready to kill them all. 

"DRAGON BREATH!" he yelled, incinerating half the buildings. 

That's when the Ultimate Digimon took the stage. 

"Let's go!" Lee shouted.

Sunamon was the first to hit. "Sun's Heat!" she cried out. 

Her attack had no effect. Grinning, Wrathmon took her and the rest of the Digimon out with one shot. He also deleted half the Numemon!

"Oh no!" Hikaru gasped. 

Lee's master plan had pretty much failed. They now had a jumble of little Rookie Digimon on the ground, drained of the energy that it had taken to digivolve. They also had a pile of pissed off Numemon.

Gennai suddenly cried out, "Use the flame! Use the flame!" 

Wrathmon cackled. "I think I will!" 

"Not you! Her! Her!" Gennai frantically pointed at Kinaka. 

She understood. 

She held up her flame pendant. "Mom, I know you never did anything so I was proud to call myself your daughter, but please! If you can hear me, from wherever you are, help me! Help us!" she cried out desperately. 

A prism of light flowed down into the city, surrounding their Digimon. As they watched, transfixed, their D-X's blasted out their own colored light. And as the buildings around them began to crumble, the Digimon began to digivolve.


	17. Enter the Unknown

In this chapter, the Digimon have finally been bumped up to the Mega level. That's all I have to say. Read the rest yourselves! 

****

Next Generation: …And So It Begins (Again)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: ENTER THE UNKNOWN

"Starymon warp-digivolve to…Monamon!" Lee's Monamon towered over them. She was a huge, bright, silvery-white ball with shadows and craters all over her. She had three glowing green eyes set deep in her face. 

"Pikkimon warp digivolve to…Suicunemon!" Suicunemon was a large greenish blue half-dog, half-fox. She had huge, powerful wings and a long fluffy tail almost like Pikkimon's.

"Usaiamon warp-digivolve to…Sunnamon!" Sunnamon was a yellow pixie with a long cat's tail, all decked out in sunflowers. Her skin was tinged a pale green.

"Mikomon warp-digivolve to…MangaSiyamon!" MangaSiyamon was a gigantic cat, half-Siamese, half-jaguar. She had a black coat, and had a helmet. She also had armor, and Hikaru's Crest of Starlight was etched onto the helmet and the bands around her ankles.

"Empramon warp-digivolve to…Noblemon!" Noblemon looked like a lion, but was made completely out of metal, and had a horn on his forehead. His mane was pure gold, his face was silver, and the rest of him was solid chrome digizoid.

"Tyumon warp-digivolve to…Satyrmon!" Satyrmon looked like a Russell Crowe-type gladiator, but was made completely out of chrome digizoid and had gold armor. Mike's Crests of Miracles was on his breastplate.

"Fangmon warp-digivolve to…Shadowmon!" Shadowmon was over twenty feet tall, and was in the shape of a human. He was a completely black being, save for two wrathful red eyes burning out from his face.

"Auroramon warp-digivolve to…Blizzamon!" Blizzamon looked a lot like Shidracamon, but only she had silver armor **(think Flamedramon)** on her shins and forearms. She also wore a silver headband, and had a shield on her back. She carried a bow and arrows made out of ice.

"Donamon warp-digivolve to…Zyllemon!" Zyllemon was a huge, but more feminine, version of Davis and Ken's Paildramon. She had the same machine guns, and the same armor, but hers was blue, black, yellow and green. She had long purple hair, black obsidian eyes, and blue-tinged skin. Peeking out under her hair were her elf-like ears, with several gold hoops in each lobe.

"Thimon warp-digivolve to…MachoThundermon!" MachoThundermon was a half-cat, half-lizard, as always, but now he had lizard skin over more than three-quarters of his body. He had metal bands around his wrists and ankles, all with Deanna's Crest of Loneliness on them. He had red eyes and huge, brick red dragon wings. 

"Mousiemon warp-digivolve to…Kattamon!" Kattamon was a black and white panther that stood on both legs. She wore armor somewhat like Blizzamon's, with knee guards and armbands with Cleo's Crest of Trust on them. Her claws had to be at least seven or eight inches long.

"Rubymon warp-digivolve to…Chandramon!" Chandramon was a cross between a dragon and a wasp. She had striped red and gold armor, with a shield on her back bearing Tina's Crest of Harmony. Six cruel stingers were loaded into each of her arm cannons. She had eight pairs of dragon wings, and had a helmet on that only covered one eye.

"Syramon warp-digivolve to…Chronomon!" Chronomon looked somewhat like Davis's Raidramon, with blue armor down his back and on his head. He had a horn on his nose, and the rest of his body that didn't have blue armor on it was yellow. The same sloppy "M" that once was on his previous forms was now painted on his back in red. Holly's Crest of Courage was on his belly.

"Minomon warp-digivolve to…Psycho-Psymon!" Psycho-Psymon looked the same as his Ultimate form Ultra-Psymon, but had longer claws, and angel wings instead of bat wings. Chris's Mind's Eye symbol was on his breastplate.

Lee's eyes were wide with shock. Her plan was going to work after all!

Kinaka looked like she was going to have a heart attack. "Kick-ASS!" she finally whooped. 

"WHOO!" Lauren cried, punching the air. 

Gennai went on smiling benignly. 

Leon picked Lee up and spun her around, laughing. "Ha!" he said gleefully. "For once your half-baked plans didn't get us almost killed, Lee!" 

"Shut up, Bubby!" she squealed, trying to kick him. "PUT ME DOWN! I'M GONNA BARF!"

Kiko nudged Mike. "That was nice of Kinaka's mom to lend us that power," he said. 

Mike shrugged. "I think they just did it themselves."

"Lookit what they're doing now!" Deanna called. She was perched on a piece of a fallen building nearby, with a perfect view of all the action.

"MOVE YOUR BUTT OVER!" Cleo hollered, fighting to get a seat. 

Below them, the battle raged fiercely. This time, all the Digimon knew that they were up against someone who wasn't going to go down after they attacked one after the other. They knew it was going to take something better than that. 

They all decided to attack in pairs. Monamon and Zyllemon charged on ahead, and gave it their all. 

"_Spitfire Bullets!"_ Zyllemon called out, just as Monamon yelled, "_Moon's Gravity!_" 

The force of Monamon's attack pinned Wrathmon's tail to the pavement below. Zyllemon's attack blew off a section of his tail fins. 

"Are they gonna kill him piece by piece?" Hikaru wondered aloud. 

Chris just laughed. "That'll take forever. He's like, twice the size of my apartment building!"

"_Chilling Arrow!_" Blizzamon shrieked. Sunnamon followed with, "_Flower Power!"_ **(A/N to the creator of Lauren: it's crude. I know.)**

A blast of razor-sharp sunflower petals sliced across Wrathmon's face. He howled in pain as those, as well as one of Blizzamon's arrows, put out his left eye. Black blood oozed from his eye into the street, where a group of frightened Numemon was huddled. They all got covered completely.

"WE WANT THE NEWS, NOT THE WEATHER!" all of them cried out. 

"_Beast Roar!_" Noblemon cried. 

"_Ancient Shield!_" yelled Satyrmon.

Noblemon sent a wave of energy through the air that sent Wrathmon hurtling into a row of townhouses. Once he was down, Satyrmon charged at him, his lance held high. A sort of forcefield surrounded him.

Unfortunately, Wrathmon saw it coming and blocked him easily. Although he had managed to deter a potentially damaging attack, he was now bleeding profusely where sharp things in the debris had cut him. 

"Damn you all! _Dragon Spiel!_" Wave after wave of explosive force hit the Digimon.

Suicunemon got up right away and fired off. "_Hyper Rainbow Blast!_" she screamed. Shadowmon followed her lead with, "_Night Terror!_" 

Out of Shadowmon's fingertips, tiny little horned beings flew at Wrathmon and started eating at his wings. They had managed to make quite a few holes by the time Suicunemon's attack came through. The blast of rainbow light crashed into his side and made a hole. 

"_Black Death!_" he called out, but his attack was driven back at him with MangaSiyamon's and Psycho-Psymon's sudden attacks of "_Thunder Claws!_" and "_Wave of Destruction!_" 

Kattamon and MachoThundermon attacked next. 

"_Ferocious Slash!_" 

"_Burning Rage!_" 

"AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!" Wrathmon screamed. He crashed to the ground, twitching. 

"_TIME SWEEPER!_" Chronomon shrieked savagely. 

"_STINGING CANNON!" _Chandramon yelled.

Their attacks blasted a hole about two feet in diameter in his chest. Wrathmon lay there, vulnerable and clearly weakened. 

"AGAIN!" all the kids screamed from their precarious perch. 

__

"FREEZING SOUL!"  
  
"MOON'S BEAMS!"

"FLOWER POWER!"

"BEAST ROAR!"

"ANCIENT SHIELD!" (This time, Satyrmon was actually able to carry through his attack without getting deflected.)

__

"GIJINKA BEAM!"  
  
"NIGHT TERROR!"  


"THUNDER CLAWS!"

"TIME SWEEPER!"  
  
"STINGING CANNON!"

"FEROCIOUS SLASH!"

"BURNING RAGE!"

"WAVE OF DESTRUCTION!"

Zyllemon let out her "_SPITFIRE BULLETS!_" in a magnificent conflagration that lit up the crumbling ruins of the city…

…and the look of incredible pain that Wrathmon had twisted on his scaly face, like a grotesque Halloween mask. 

"YOU ARE ALL DOOMED, DIGIDESTINED! DO YOU HEAR ME? DOOMED!" Wrathmon spat as black flames began to consume his body. "DO YOU NOT KNOW THE POWERS OF DARKNESS IN THE DIGITAL WORLD? DO YOU NOT KNOW OF THE THREAT BEFORE YOU? FOR IF YOU DON'T, YOUR PITIFUL LIVES WILL SURELY PAY THE PRICE! MY SON…BY MY SISTER SABINEMON…WILL BE THE AVENGER OF MY DESTRUCTION! GO NOW! THINK THAT YOU WILL BE SAFE ONCE I AM GONE! BUT BEWARE, PUNY DIGIDESTINED…MORE DANGER LIES AHEAD THAT YOU CANNOT EVEN COMPREHEND!"

With these last words and an agonized scream, he was engulfed in the flames. Whatever was left of him exploded and vanished from their sight.

"We hereby make you, Hikaru Takaishi, honorary Princess of our humble city!" the chief Numemon said happily. "And you, wenches and knights of the Digidestined, you are also made honorary royalty of this fair city! May you all be blessed the rest of your days for bringing peace to our lives again!" 

"Hip hip hooray!" the other Numemon cried, throwing handfuls of confetti. 

"WENCHES? WHY I OUGHTA—" Kinaka and Lauren began, but Lee and Tina clapped their hands over their mouths and grinned. 

Chris surveyed the smoldering ruins of what used to be their 'fair city'. "You guys sure need a clean-up crew," he said. "Maybe we can help."

"Can you? Oh, please, we need all the help we can get!" the chief Numemon squeaked. "If you can find it in your hearts to aid us, we who will benevolently protect you if need be—"

"We'll help!" Kiko declared. Mike nodded in agreement. 

"Then let's go! We must clean up, we must clean up, we must clean up…" The Numemon's voice faded as he bounced down the street, surveying the cleanup. 

Leon elbowed Chris. "This guy seems to me like a total neat-freak."

"Well, we saved the damn city, and they're gonna protect us if we need it, so let's start hauling this rubble! OK?"

"All right." Leon bent over and picked up a chunk of cement weighing maybe 80 pounds. He grinned and began walking away with it. 

"Show-off!" Lee yelled after him, struggling to lift heavy beams of wood off of the street.

Gennai began to drift away from them, out of the crowd. 

"Where you going?" Deanna called after him.   
  
"Goodbye, children. I'm going back to my home now. Return there once your task is completed." With that, he disappeared.

Night eventually fell. How the Numemon could tell night from day in their city underground was an enigma, but according to their D-X's, it really was night. 

"DINNER!" a shrill-voiced Numemon called. "DINNER IN THE GRAND HALL!" 

All of them limped along back to the Grand Hall, a meeting place for the Numemon. Most of them were groaning about pulled muscles and sore bones, but Leon was grinning under his dirt-streaked face. 

"Seriously, you guys are wimps," he teased, swatting his sisters playfully on the back. Lee, who had been complaining of an aching back, hit him in the gut as hard as she could. He doubled over, looking angry. 

"One day, Witaki Lee Kamiya, you are going to push me too far," he warned. 

A Numemon slithered up to them. "Hard day, huh?" he said kindly. "Well, after dinner, some of us are going to bring you to a hot springs bath and a luxury sleeping quarters. It's the least we can do for you. After all, you defeated the one Digimon who was making our lives miserable, and you helped in today's cleanup."

At the words "bath" and "luxury", everyone perked up. It had been a long, long, _long_ time since they'd been even remotely clean. After cleaning debris out of a city about four square kilometers, they looked even worse. 

Their meal, they found out, was some sort of vegetarian meal. It didn't smell or look too bad, so they devoured it. They ate so fast, in fact, that they didn't really care if it _tasted_ bad. 

They were in high spirits after eating their fill. But their happy mood flew out the window when they were taken to the hot springs…

"THERE'S NO FREAKIN' PRIVACY!" Tina cried out. "How are we supposed to have baths when there's no screen or something between the guys and the girls?"

"Bubby doesn't really count as a guy," Lee cracked.   
  
"I'm warning you, Lee! That's two today!"

The little Numemon guides calmly explained that since you can't tell a Numemon guy from a girl most of the time, there were no separate baths. "However," one of them said, "the bath curves around a fountain, as you can see. If the boys keep on one side, and the girls keep on the other side, you should be fine. You humans are pretty strange!" 

"Screen between the baths!" another chortled. They left a pile of fluffy white towels on the benches, and scurried off to make their sleeping quarters ready. 

The girls and the guys eyed eachother warily. 

"Who undresses first?" Chris cracked.   


"CHRIS!" all the girls yelled. 

Once everyone finally calmed down enough, it was decided that all the boys and the boy Digimon (this included Holly's Syramon and Deanna's Thimon) would go to the other side and change there. The girls would be on the other side. End of problem. 

There were plenty of fun little bath toys to play with, such as rubber balls, plastic rings and rubber duckies. **(Quack quack…heh heh heh.)** Unfortunately, Empramon threw his red rubber ball too hard at Tyumon, and it flew over the fountain into the girls' end. 

"ARGH!" the girls screamed. 

"Relax, I just threw my ball over there!" Empramon called to them. "Want me to come get it or something?"   
  
"NO! NO! NO!" 

"I won't look! I promise!"

"NO!!!!!!!!!! KEEP AWAY, YOU PERVERT!"

The ball came flying back, along with a plastic ring that hit Leon in the side of the head. 

"HEY!" 

Before long, an explosive battle was being waged with the various bath toys. It ended when the Numemon came back, to announce that their quarters were ready. 

"Hallelujah!" Cleo cried. "A bed! A bed! Not a solid rock floor! A BED!" 

They hurriedly dressed themselves in their clothes that the Numemon had cleaned. They smelled pleasantly like lemon-fresh detergent. Exhausted after their bath toy war, they trudged after the Numemon to the chambers. 

Fourteen canopy beds with thick quilts and unbelievably fluffy pillows awaited them. The moment their heads hit the pillows, they began to drift off. 

__

We're finally going to go home. Our work here is done, was Jenna's last waking thought. 

It happened just before the day broke. (According to the time on their D-X's, that is.)

Jenna was jolted out of sleep by an agonized scream. She opened her eyes, and there was Chris on the floor in front of his bed. He was gripping his shoulder, moaning in pain as blood oozed through his shirt onto the floor. Hikaru was at his side, frantically trying to stop the flow. 

"Somebody help!" she shrieked. 

A black shadow flew through the room. Hikaru screamed in terror and dropped, shielding Chris and trying to protect herself at the same time. 

The shadow stopped inches from where she and Chris were huddled on the floor. Jenna got up and rushed over to Leon, shaking him. 

"Wha…"

"Get up! Something's attacking us!" she yelled, pulling back the blankets and yanking him forcibly out of bed. 

Black particles swam thickly through the air. They all began to build up in the middle of the room, over the shadow near Hikaru and Chris. It grew taller…thicker…began to shape itself…

Leon's eyes almost popped out of his head with shock. "What is that?" he asked incredulously.   
  
"I don't know!" 

Suddenly, the particles stopped building the figure. It began to have features…skin formed…appendages flexed and became animated. An evil, grinning face affixed itself onto the head. 

Hikaru's veins flooded with ice-cold fear as she looked up into the most terrible, frightening face she had ever seen in her life.


	18. Declaration of Independence

Almost done the series! (sniffles) WAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! OK, just to be fair, the last few chapters are gonna be extra long! Ten pages or more if I can. Just 'coz you guys all love me. Hee hee.

****

Next Generation: …And So It Begins (Again)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

Hikaru screamed as loud as she could, hoping to scare off…whatever it was that was in her face. The others all sat up, looking stunned and horrified at what stood there. 

The Digimon in the middle of the room was about eight feet tall, and looked almost like a human woman. That was where the similarities ended. One half of her was dressed in artfully ripped black silk, and she had beautiful clear skin and a blue eye set in a lovely face. Her hair was long, golden and flowed down almost to the floor. She looked fit and healthy, and wore dozens of gold rings on her hand. On the other half…she was hideous and rotting, smelling of decay and infection. Bloody, infected lacerations marred this half, and maggots and lice ran rampant all over. Her clothes were nothing but ragged, bloodstained tatters. The hair was also long and gold on this side, but it was tangled, matted and dirty. It was also crawling with vermin. Her skin was rotten almost right off, and strips of it sagged so that you could see her bones glistening beneath. She was just downright hideous.

"Who the bloody hell are you?" Hikaru finally screamed when she got her voice back. 

The disgusting thing smiled winningly, with perfect teeth on one side and broken black teeth on the other. "I suppose my father warned you of my arrival," she said, grinning like a jack-o-lantern. "But poor daddy dearest didn't know that I was still alive when he died. My birthplace was a secluded island off the coast of Server. I think it was something like File Island…well, that doesn't really matter. What matters is that I also had a twin brother named Puppetmon, but when he died, the information my father received was unreliable. He thought I had been killed with the rest of the Dark Masters. My father didn't realize that I, his heir, the sole survivor of the Dark Royals, was still alive. I heard him call when he was vanquished at your hands. And so, Digidestined, I have come to avenge him!" 

She raised her hands, and a long silver saber appeared. "_Swift Blade!_" she screamed, driving it toward the ground at Hikaru. 

Hikaru rolled out of the way and kicked out hard. Her foot caught the Digimon in the decayed part of her leg. A wound there oozed out some sort of greenish-yellow gook that smelled horrible.

"You didn't answer me! Who are you?" she yelled, kicking hard again. 

"I am DarkEmpiramon! And you would do well to remember that name!" She stabbed at her again. "It is now the name of the Queen of the Dark Realm!"

"Queen, my ass!" Kinaka yelled. "You're an illegitimate bastard! Your mother was also your aunt, for cryin' out loud! What's more, you're probably deformed too! If your twin was born with Data/Vaccine qualities, you must have them as well!"

"Hardly," DarkEmpiramon scoffed. "My brother was weak. As you will see, I am not! Puppetmon only reached the Mega level, and my father got to the Armor Mega level. But look at me now, Digidestined! I have reached the Extreme level! The only level higher than that is Pure, which I am well on my way to achieving!"

"Enough of this!" Lee snapped. "Pure, my lily-white ass! You're going down! Let's do it, Starymon." 

All the Rookies shook their heads, however. "Lee, we haven't eaten in hours," Starymon gasped, falling down and clutching her stomach. 

Donamon nuzzled Kim's leg. "Do you have a Twinkie, at least?" she asked. 

"Food! Food! Food!" Mikomon chanted. 

DarkEmpiramon only laughed. "_Swift Blade!_" she cried out again. This time, she managed to graze Hikaru's cheek. A line of blood welled up. 

"Ow!" she cried, clutching at her face. 

Chris, who was barely conscious by now from all the blood he lost, attempted to sit up and help her. "Leave her be," he croaked. He dragged himself over to a bed and used the bedpost to get himself upright. "Touch one hair on her head, and I'll kill you!" he warned. 

"Get a brain, boy. You can't possibly defeat me. _Dark Shot!_" An energy ball the size of her head blasted at him. It hit the floor just inches away. 

"We've got to get out of here!" Lauren cried desperately. 

"How? I don't see any exits!" Kinaka said. 

Lee suddenly lunged at DarkEmpiramon. She slammed into her, causing her to lose her grip on the sword she held. It clanked to the floor, where Hikaru managed to grab hold of it. 

Seconds later, she dropped it. "Argh! My hands!" she screamed. Angry red welts were appearing on her palms. 

"Out of the way!" Lee called. She picked up the sword, ignoring the burning pain in her hands, and took a wild swing at DarkEmpiramon. "Guys, get out of here! Go!"

"Stop being an idiot, Lee!" Kim hissed. "She'll kill you!" 

"Just get out of here! I'll be fine!" 

The only exit seemed to be the window, since DarkEmpiramon was blocking the door. Minomon blasted the window apart, and they began to climb out onto the window ledge. 

"Aaahh!" Cleo cried out when she saw how high up they were. "We're all gonna die up here!" 

"Look, there's the river. Try to jump in there!" Deanna told her. She held on tight to Thimon, and they leaped into the river, making a huge splash. 

"It's deep enough!" she called up. "Go for it! Hurry!" 

Chris, supported by Hikaru, went next. Almost as soon as everyone had gone in, Lee showed up, carrying Starymon. She was bleeding badly from a cut on her forehead, but she seemed to be all right. 

"Lee! Starymon! Jump!" Holly called out. "Hurry, before she catches you!" 

Lee jumped. As she did, DarkEmpiramon blew the whole wall apart. Chunks of concrete and plaster showered down, hitting the street. A bunch of little Numemon got creamed when DarkEmpiramon herself jumped down. 

"Swim for it!" Lee yelled. "Look! There's a series of culverts we can go into, to hide from her. Move it!" 

DarkEmpiramon flew overhead. "I'm going to kill you all, Digidestined!" she roared. "You can't hide from me!" 

They reached one of the culverts. It was fairly big, about ten feet by eleven feet. It was full of algae and other such stuff, but they didn't care. The culvert seemed to tilt up, up and out of the water. They all scrambled to get out of the water, shivering with cold.

"That—was close," Kinaka chattered through her teeth. "God, it's f—f—reezing!"

Hikaru and Chris leaned against eachother, their eyes closed. Chris was still bleeding from his shoulder, and both were shivering. "We are so screwed," he managed to say. 

"Extreme level. Hard to beat that," Leon said, looking downcast. "She's one hell of a tough bitch, too."

"Anyone got any bright ideas?" Tina spoke up.

Holly snorted. "I've got one. Let's get our butts out of here! It's wet, it's cold, and we're all going to catch pneumonia if we don't."

Lee mopped at her cut gingerly with the hem of her shirt. "Jenna, pass me your first aid kit," she instructed. "I think I might need stitches, but I'm not sure."

"What did she do to you?" Leon asked. 

She scowled. "You know those four-inch-long claws she's got on her rotten half? She scratched me with those. God only knows if I'm gonna get gangrene from that. Yuck!" 

She finished dressing the wound and tossed a roll of gauze at Hikaru. "Here. Clean him up," she instructed her cousin. "And clean yourself up too."

While she did that, Lee got up and paced. "As soon as we're ready, let's go up and see how far this thing goes. Who knows, maybe there's a place we can hide out in until we've had a bit of food and rested a bit."

Hikaru closed the first aid kit and helped Chris to his feet. "I agree. C'mon, let's go."

They crept through the culvert quietly, occasionally slipping on the thick green algae covering the sides. A constant dripping sound resonated through the silence, making them all wary. 

After a long period of silence, Kim groaned. "I can't take this silence!" she cried out angrily. "It's driving me crazy! Can't we talk or something?"

"Cool your jets," Cleo told her disdainfully. "Freaking out is not going to help us get out of here."

"She's right. What, are we all afraid to talk or something?" Kiko piped up. "Even if that creepy Digimon is following us, it's not gonna matter if she hears us or not."

Hikaru looked impressed and even a little shocked at her little brother. "All right, Kiko!" she trilled. 

"Wait a sec." Lauren stopped walking and listened intently, her head cocked to one side. "I heard something."

"How cliché," Kinaka quipped. "Can't you do any better than that, Lauren?"

"No, I'm serious!" she protested. "I heard something like footsteps!" 

They all eyed eachother warily. "I don't hear a thing," Tina finally said maybe two minutes later. "Laur, I swear, that fever you had must have affected your brain somehow, because the rest of us aren't—"

CRASH!

"—hearing things," Tina finished.

A section of the culverts in front of them burst open. Water gushed out of the opening as DarkEmpiramon herself stepped out, looking even more terrible and angry than the last time they saw her. 

"Hah! Thought you could escape, did you?" she sneered. 

"Go the other way!" Lee screamed. They all took off in the opposite direction.

DarkEmpiramon disappeared. As they were running back toward the opposite end, she crashed though the top of the culvert and landed in front of them. 

"Don't you get it? You can't escape from me! _Nitro Blaster!_" she cried out. She held a flaming green ball in her hand, then blasted it at them. 

"Argh!" Pikkimon cried. She had taken the blast full in the chest. As she sank to the wet floor, Jenna dropped to her knees to help her.

"You bitch!" she screamed at her. "Pikkimon, are you okay?"

The little Digimon's eyes were half-closed. "I'll be all right," she said weakly. "I'm just so hungry right now, and I can't stand up to her…"

"You'll be fine," Jenna reassured her. 

"Wrong. _Nitro Blaster!"_ This time, her attack hit all their Digimon full force. Everyone watched in horror as their Digimon returned to their In-Training forms. 

Kiromon looked up at Leon with big, sad eyes. "I am so sorry," he said weakly. 

Leon looked close to tears as he picked Kiromon up. "Don't worry about it, little dude," he said. "We'll be okay. She won't win." The Crest of Darkness pulsated on his chest, as if to back up his claim.

DarkEmpiramon grinned maniacally as she surveyed the scene. "Now I have you right where I want you! _Hyper Dark Cannon!_"

With a hidden arm cannon on her living side, she completely demolished the culvert. The ceiling crashed in on their heads, and all was black for a long time.

"Lee…Lee!" Kim called. "Wake up!"

Lee stirred. She realized suddenly that something was weighing down her legs. "Argh! I'm stuck!" she cried. "Kim, get me out of here!" 

Her friend tugged at the heavy beam of metal that pinned Lee down. It was maybe two feet thick and weighed more than it looked. "Ugh," she said at last, stopping for breath. "It's really heavy. I don't think I can get it off."

Leon came up behind them. His shirt had a huge hole ripped in it, and he looked like a drowned cat, but he looked all right otherwise. "Hey, sis," he greeted Lee. "Stuck, huh?"

"Well, DO something about it!" she yelled, squirming. Her Digimon was trying to move the beam then, but she was unsuccessful. 

"Step aside." Leon grabbed the beam and pushed it off of Lee. She scrambled to her feet immediately, glad that nothing felt broken. 

"Where are the others?" she asked. 

"Up the culvert somewhere." Leon's eyes clouded over for a second. "Jenna and Kinaka are out cold still. Lauren's got a nasty cut on her arm, but she'll be fine. Tina thinks her ankle is broken, and Cleo's bitching about broken nails. As for the others, they seem to be all right, although Kiko and Mike look like they may have concussions."

Lee breathed a sigh of relief. "And their Digimon? Are they OK?"

"Well, they're still In-Training. But they'll be all right."

"You won't be, unless they digivolve," a quiet voice said. 

"Who said that?" Kim cried. 

Lauren's laptop was open on its side, looking dented and dirty. Thankfully, it was still intact. Gennai's face was on it, looking worried. 

  
"I swear I had no clue about DarkEmpiramon," he said sadly. "I wish I had known sooner. Are you all right?"

"We're fine," Leon said quickly. "She just blew the sewer up and left. You think she's still around?"

Gennai looked grim. "I don't know. Look, try to get a little food in your Digimon. It might help. Good luck." The screen went fuzzy again.

"Damn." Lee stared at the screen blankly. "Good luck? Hell, we need it."

A low groan came from somewhere to the left of them. Lee picked up the laptop and made her way over to the source of the sound. Jenna and Kinaka were lying there, and Jenna was just waking up.

Leon brushed past his sister and helped Jenna to her feet. "Are you all right?" he asked her. 

She gave him a withering look. "I'm fine. Leon, you don't have to treat me like breakable china. I was just knocked out, that's all." 

It showed. There was a bruise on her temple the size of a goose egg.

"Well, you might have a concussion or something," he protested. 

"Shut up. I've been concussed before, and trust me, this pain I've got in my ass from you is not as bad as the pain in my head!" she shot back.

He had the grace to blush. Lee hooted and slapped her brother on the back.

"Whoo-ee, Bubby! Way to make your girlfriend pissed off!" she said coyly. 

Both of them made like they were going to kill her. "SHE IS NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!" Leon roared, at the same time Jenna yelled, "HE IS SO NOT MY BOYFRIEND!" 

They stopped their yelling as Kinaka grunted and got up. "Ow, shit. My head," she grumbled. "Anyone got an aspirin?"

Forgetting her attempts to assassinate Lee, Jenna rooted around through the first aid kit. "Here," she said, passing a bottle of Advil to Kinaka. "It's extra strength, so all you need is one. You're going to have to take it dry, though, 'coz we don't have any water."

"Thanks." Kinaka swallowed one of the rust-colored pills and gave the bottle back. "Damn, that was close! Where'd everyone else go?"

Leon pointed vaguely up the culvert. "Up there. Oh, and Kinaka…I hate to tell you, but one of your earrings is missing." 

She clapped her hand to her ears, looking horrified. "Argh!" she cried. "All right, nobody leaves until I find that earring!" She got to her knees in the water and started searching. 

"What's going on?" a tired voice asked. Lauren stepped down, looking a bit pale. She had a bandage wrapped around her arm. 

"Kinaka's lost one of her earrings," Lee said. 

Lauren dug in her pocket, then handed Kinaka one of the flame earrings. "I found it up where we got attacked," she said. "I kept it, 'cos I knew you'd be pissed if it was lost."

"Thanks." Looking elated, she clipped it back on.

The other kids came down with their Digimon, looking a bit worse for the wear but definitely in one piece. Tina was limping noticeably. 

"It's gotta be broken," she groaned. "Dammit, Holly, a tensor bandage is so not going to work!" 

"Dr. Ichijouji, coming though," Jenna said. She dispensed Advil to everyone who needed it, breaking one in half for Kiko and Mike. "This oughta do the trick."

"Wish I would have known you had that," Leon said glumly. "Might have helped when you were sick."

"I got better anyway."

Everyone looked like they wanted to collapse from exhaustion. Hikaru and Chris leaned on eachother, as did Jenna and Leon. All the Digimon partners were snuggled up to their human partners. 

"Jenna?" Calimon asked. "I'm still hungry." 

Jenna looked at Lee wearily. "Where's all the food?" she asked dully. 

Lee tossed three LifeSavers and a square of Morinaga chocolate at her. "Feed her this. It's all I can really ration for them right now," she explained. "Plus we've got to eat something." 

All that was really left by the time they finished rationing food, however, was the apple grapes and half of the granola bar. Regardless, they ate it all and sat back. 

"Some gourmet meal," Deanna griped. "I hate to sound spoiled, but even some of that fish we had a while back sounds good."

"Even the food in the caf at school will taste good to me. Even if they've recycled last year's basketballs into the meatloaf," Chris sighed. 

"School!" Hikaru sat up suddenly. "Guys, how long have we been here?"

They began to count. To their horror, it had been almost a month: 26 days. 

****

(A/N: I've added it up. I'm not really sure, but this is the total I keep getting.)

"This is so not funny," Cleo groaned. "I've missed so much school…and I'm totally failing in geography. What are we gonna do when we get back? Our parents are going to have to think up really good excuses!"

Chris looked smug. "Leave it to me," he said, grinning. "My dad is friends with Dr. Kido. They share the Crest of Reliability, remember? And since Dr. Joe there is a doctor _and_ a Digidestined, after all…" 

Hikaru grinned evilly. "Chris, you aren't thinking what I'm thinking, are you?"

"Oh, I am. Ladies and gentlemen, we have our excuse notes! All we have to do is say we had some sort of life-threatening disease, or maybe just a severe case of a minor infection, and ta-da! Anyway, at the high school in Nakano, they only accept excuse notes from doctors, or if someone in your family dies." Chris beamed. "Am I a genius or what?"

Cleo and Leon nodded; they went to the same high school as Chris did. 

"Good idea, man," Leon said, looking awed. "What was that your dad said about you having trouble in school?"

Chris reddened. "I skipped a lot of classes in September because I was having some problems with my stepbrother Alex," he said, looking a bit depressed. "He lived in Kyoto with my mom's first husband, but then the guy died and Alex got shipped out here. We sorta resented eachother for co-existing. Things got ugly around the house, in the classroom, everywhere we went. But then he got hit by a car coming back drunk one night…I guess you've heard about that," he added, looking toward Leon and Cleo. "Lookit me, bringing up my problems to dump on you guys. I'll just be shutting up now…"

Hikaru put her hand on his arm. "It's all right," she said softly. "I can't say anything like that's ever happened…except my mom getting sick all the time. She's anemic, you know, and every time she almost goes, Dad looks like he's going to die with her. And I'm so scared, because my parents are almost like one person when that stuff happens." She paused. "It might have something to do with their Crests. I don't really know." 

Lauren groaned. "If this atmosphere gets any sadder, I'm going to need a box of tissues."

"Aw, shuddup!" Kinaka told her, punching her in the shoulder. 

Everyone laughed. 

"I wonder where DarkEmpiramon went," Holly said, as an afterthought.

To their dismay, DatkEmpiramon came speeding down the culvert at them. Her claws were raised like she was ready to do battle.

"Aw, crap. I had to go and open my big mouth," Holly groaned.

"We can get her this time, guys! Kiromon digivolve to…Fangmon!" 

All the little Digimon, seemingly strengthened by their meagre rations, sprang into action. Before long, all of them had digivolved to Rookie and were ready to go.

"_Midnight Fright!_" she screamed, blasting at them. Her attack was more aimed at the Digidestined this time. 

The blast knocked them all off their feet. Lee watched in horror as DarkEmpiramon plucked Starymon off the ground and encased her in a glass orb. The orbs looked pretty brutal. Inside were electrical currents set to fire off every five seconds. They worked like a lethal bug zapper, only magnified a thousandfold in power.

"LEE! HELP ME!" Starymon shrieked. "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" 

"STOP IT!" Lee cried. She stumbled to her feet. "Let her go!"

"Fat chance. _Acid Venom!_" Poisonous venom shot out of her mouth like a garden hose. It splattered and hissed and generally burned holes in nearly everything it touched. A huge hole in the side of the culvert sprung up, and the venom dripped onto the inert forms of their Digimon.

"IT BURNS!" Donamon shrieked.

"GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!" Mikomon screamed, frantically trying to alleviate the pain from the burns the acid venom was causing. 

"_Nightmare Shocker!_" This time, her attack was centered solely on the Digimon. It pinned them to the ground and encased them all in the same glass orbs Starymon was in. 

"No!" Deanna cried. "What do we do now?"

"I don't think there's much we _can_ do," Mike whimpered. He watched as Tyumon pressed his face against the glass and called out his partner's name piteously. 

"_Zombie Rage!_" A wave of energy knocked them all off their feet again. They lay there, stunned, as the place began to fall apart. The walls of the culvert started to fall in on them again, pressing in over their heads. Water that was as thick and black as oil oozed around them, seeping into their clothes. And though it all, DarkEmpiramon stood there, laughing, as their Digimon were electrified.

Everything started to move in slow motion for Lee. Though glazed eyes, she watched the roof begin to buckle in. She watched as Leon reached for Jenna, trying to keep her from harm. Kinaka and Lauren were down, protecting Mike and Kiko from the falling debris. She felt Kim's hand suddenly grip her wrist, pulling her away from the collapsing wall. 

Suddenly, she knew what she needed to do. 

Ignoring the collapsing culvert, she faced DarkEmpiramon and let loose an extraordinary speech that seemed to flow out of her mouth by itself. 

"We came here a month ago for this reason: to restore the Digital World to order, and to destroy all enemies of the light. We came here with our spirits high and our heads held just as high. We came to continue our parents' efforts to keep this world free of corrupt Digimon. Our partners have proven themselves to be powerful, and through all our battles, they have remained faithful and true. If times were rough, they stood by our sides. When we needed them, they helped us, no questions asked. They are one of the reasons why we have not failed, why we are still living today. We also have eachother to thank for our strength. Through the power of DNA digivolution, we found unlikely allies in eachother, perhaps even…love." Leon turned crimson when she said this. "We have formed a bond that cannot be broken. We have banded together with our minds, souls and hearts as one. Our lives are complete because we have eachother. Even with someone so evil as you standing in our way, trying to thwart our plans to free this world, we know that no matter what happens, we have done our duty by fighting you. As long as we continue to fight until the very end, we know that nothing can happen to this world."

Her eyes flashed mischievously. "And that's the reason why some ugly thing like you can't beat us! So there! Bite me, bitch!" She stuck her tongue out at DarkEmpiramon and turned to the Digidestined. 

Leon groaned. "Helluva way to end a speech, Lee." 

"Digidestined, are you with me?" Lee called out.   
  
"YEAH!" 

"Are we gonna win?"

"YEAH!!!!!"

"And is she going to bite the dust in the worst way possible?"

"YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!"  
  
DarkEmpiramon was shaking with rage. "Enough of this!" she snapped. "I will kill you all! Make no mistake!" 

Lee's duffel bag suddenly burst open. The Digi-Egg of Independence lifted out and floated in front of her. Meanwhile, her D-X and her Crest were glowing with a fierce blue light. She took hold of her Digi-Egg in one hand, and her D-X in the other. 

"What's happening?" DarkEmpiramon screamed. 

"Something very big, I expect," Lee grinned. 

She held her D-X and Digi-Egg high. Her Crest, Digi-Egg and D-X were suddenly connected by three bands of light. Starymon began to glow inside the glass orb. 

"TRI-FLASH ARMOR, ENERGIZE!" she cried out, as the rest of the culvert began to disintegrate. "INDEPENDENCE, ACTIVATE!"


	19. The Final Clash (or, Pure Heart Evolutio...

Ooh, the suspense…muahaha. In this chapter we will see new digivolves, a tough-bitch opponent, and a startling surprise digivolution that will change the way they think about good and evil. What could be more…intriguing?

****

Next Generation: …And So It Begins (Again)

Chapter Nineteen: The Final Clash (or, Pure Heart Evolution)

Starymon blasted her way out of the glass orb. The light that was flaring around Lee enveloped her like a shroud, and suddenly, she began to digivolve. 

"Starymon, flash-warp digivolve to…Siriusmon, the Shield of Independence!" 

Lee's eyes were huge as she stared up at Siriusmon. "Thank goodness for my shades," she commented. "She's freaking bright!" 

Siriusmon looked down at her with flaming orange eyes. Her whole gigantic body was flame red, and little tendrils of fire wisped around her. She was probably about fifty-five feet in diameter. Right in the very heart of her, the Crest of Independence burned with golden light.

Lauren's laptop suddenly started to beep. Curious, she opened it and found analyser.exe open. On it was a picture of Siriusmon, with her description next to it.

"Siriusmon," she read. "A lodestar Digimon. She is sixty feet in diameter and can crush just about anything with her Solar Rays attack. Armor Mega level."

DarkEmpiramon looked outraged. "You—you—" she sputtered. "How did this happen?"

Kinaka grinned. "You probably thought we were puny weaklings, am I right?" she said snidely. "Obviously we have _some _power if we took out your whole family…including our mother," she added with a slight shudder. "Urgh. I don't like this. I'm your freaking half-sister."

"Get over it. _Great Hypnotic Beam!_"

Siriusmon waved her fiery limbs around. "_Solar Rays!_" she shouted. A giant solar wind flared up, and immense fireballs shot at DarkEmpiramon. 

__

"Jet Spear!" DarkEmpiramon countered. 

"_Sun Squall!_" 

"_Kohl Flames!"_

Their attacks collided in mid-air, causing a gigantic explosion. Everyone ducked for cover. 

"She can't do it alone!" Lee cried. "Kim, help her out!" 

Kim held up her gear and shouted, "Tri-flash armor, energize! Faith, activate!" 

Donamon burst forth from her prison as purple flames engulfed her body. "Donamon flash-warp digivolve to…Dynamon, the Gauntlet of Faith!" 

"Dynamon," Lauren read. "Also an Armor Mega level Digimon. Descended directly from Magnamon. Her best attack is Katana Slice."

Kim gazed in awe at her Digimon. She was silver, with rounded armor and a pair of metal wings. She had an arm cannon on one arm, and a spear in the other. She wore a golden gauntlet with spikes on the knuckles, and a helmet with six spikes. The spikes all had the Crest of Faith on them. (Think in terms of Magnamon. It's sorta what she looks like.)

Next to digivolve were Tyumon and Empramon.

"Tri-flash armor energize!" 

"Miracles…"

"Destiny…" 

"ACTIVATE!"

"Tyumon, flash-warp digivolve to…Antaresmon, Guardian of Miracles!" 

"Empramon, flash-warp digivolve to…Arcturusmon, Avenger of Destiny!"

Arcturusmon was pure white, with a unicorn's head and a lion's body. Between his eyes, just under his horn, was a single glowing sapphire. He also had huge rainbowy dragonfly wings and a breastplate with the Crest of Destiny on it. Antaresmon was a humanoid man with bright, clear green eyes like Mike's. He wore gold and silver armor, and held a sickle in one hand and a scythe in the other. His helmet bore Mike's Crest of Miracles.

Kiko and Mike high-fived eachother, grinning widely. "They are so cool!" they said in unison.

"Arcturusmon and Antaresmon," Lauren read. "Arcturusmon is a savage fighter with no mercy for the wicked. Antaresmon will crush anything in his path with a single blow. Their Twin Golden Harmony attack is extremely powerful. Both are at the Armor Mega stage."

All the others, following what Lee, Kim, Kiko and Mike had done, raised their gear and shouted out the words that would make their partners digivolve. 

"Tri-flash armor energize!" 

"Dignity…"

"Trust…"

"Darkness…"

"Courage…"

"Harmony…"

"Unity…"

"Loneliness…"

"Mind's Eye…"

"Magic…"

"Starlight…"

"ACTIVATE!"

The result was magnificent and dazzling to watch.

Jenna's Pikkimon became Umbramon, a massive creature somewhat like Pikkimon but with dark blue fur, and huge bat-like wings. She had a red gem between her eyes and sort of yellow circles scattered over her fur. The Crest of Dignity was on her stomach.

Cleo's Mousiemon became Nekokomon, a large cat-like Digimon (think Nefertimon), with pure white shining fur and long, dark wings. Golden anklets with the Crest of Trust encircled her ankles. 

Leon's Fangmon became CyperPiedMyotismon, a cross between Myotismon and Piedmon and all decked out in armor. The Crest of Darkness was burned black onto his arm.

Holly's Syramon became Kismetmon. He was a large wolf wearing black and purple armor, with the purple 'M' Syramon usually had in purple on his forehead. The Crest of Courage shone on his breastplate.

Tina's Rubymon became Aerismon, a green and gold dragon whose scales looked like chain mail. A thick band of spikes circled her neck. The Crest of Harmony was on her forehead in blue.

Lauren's Usaiamon became Spicamon. Spicamon looked much like Sunnamon had, but she was now wearing a gold helmet, a breastplate with the Crest of Unity on it, and arm shields. 

Deanna's Thimon became Tayamon, a tall, muscled lizard/leopard with arm cannons and golden boots with the Crest of Loneliness on them.

Chris's Minomon became Giga-Psychomon, a wolf/bat cross with black armor all over his body, the Mind's Eye Crest on his helmet, a set of spiky wings and brass knuckles with ruthless spikes on them.

Kinaka's Auroramon became MegaBergeamon. She looked almost like Shidracamon had, but now with an entire set of gleaming silver and blue armor and a huge cannon over her shoulders. A belt that looked almost like Kinaka's flame necklace encircled her waist. The Crest of Magic was on her back. 

Hikaru's Mikomon became Segamon, a nymph-like Sagittarius with a girlish top half. She wore pinkish-gold armor and held a staff in her hand. At the end of the staff, revolving slowly, was a 3-D version of the Crest of Starlight.

The Armor Mega digivolutions were now complete. 

Fourteen fully evolved Digimon stood ready, forming a half-circle around DarkEmpiramon. The evil Digimon, who looked like a pygmy compared to the size of the fourteen of them, just stood there and smirked. Even though she was at least a quarter of their sizes, she still stood proud and ready to defeat them all.

"Well?" she said calmly. "I'm waiting. Let's have it, shall we?"

"Get her!" Lee hollered. "Break every damned bone in her rotten body!"

DarkEmpiramon let out a full laugh and rose into the air. Her feet (one clad in a silver slipper, one in a waterlogged mouldy boot) dangled below her. "I figured you'd act like this," she sneered. "Armor Megas are _so_ naïve. I remember being one myself. You're so huge, you don't know just how powerful you're _not._ As I always say, good things come in small packages. So take _this, _Digidestined! _FULL METAL RAYS!"_

Silver and black streamers blossomed out of her hands. The Armor Megas merely staggered from her attack.

"Oh, so you wanna play rough?" MegaBergeamon called out tauntingly. "Take this, then! _Killing Blizzard!_" 

A blanket of ice and snow covered DarkEmpiramon and froze her in her place for a moment. She was encased in a block of ice. 

"Perfect," Tayamon declared. "_Reptile Punch!_"

But before he could touch the frozen form of DarkEmpiramon, she burst forth from her icy prison and tossed a ball of purple energy at MegaBergeamon and Tayamon.

"Urngh!" both of them grunted as the attack hit them. Still, they weren't even fazed by the attack.

"Let's hit her all at once!" Siriusmon suggested. "Dynamon, you help me."

"_Sun's Prominence!"_ Siriusmon shouted, at the same time Dynamon let loose with _"Katana Slice!"_

The attack slammed DarkEmpiramon to the ground. She got up, bleeding green blood from the corner of her mouth on her dead half. 

"_Dark Vengeance!"_ she screamed, summoning a black tornado out of the ground. It hurtled into Siriusmon and Dynamon, who flew back about thirty feet and hit the now-black lake with a splash. They were right back up on their feet in an instant. However, DarkEmpiramon's attack continued on up to the layer of rock and dirt that hid the underground domain of the Numemon. It cracked clear across and sent chunks of debris raining down upon them. 

"Hit the dirt!" Lee called, and they all flopped to the ground and covered their heads. When it had finally cleared up, they all dared to get up. 

What they saw was both frightening and wondrous at the same time. 

They saw their parents in the sky, anxiously awaiting news from their kids. They all looked haggard and tired, as though they hadn't slept in days. Kari was holding Tania so tightly that the baby was twisting in protest. 

__

What have they been doing since we came here? Holly wondered. She craned her neck, and saw her mother standing there beside her dad. Sora looked considerably thinner since the last time they'd seen their parents. Her eyes were hollowed-out pits of despair and she looked grey and pale. She didn't look like she'd been eating, either.

__

Have they put their lives on hold…just for us?

DarkEmpiramon gazed at the sky, and a faint smile lit up her revolting Two-Face lips. (Remember Batman & Robin?) The hideous smile that was playing across her face now was the most terrible smile they had seen yet.

"I see," she was saying. "Of course. How could I be so blind? I mean, I have them with me…"

"What's she got?" Tina asked Holly. She merely shrugged. 

From a pouch at her side, DarkEmpiramon extracted eight broken Crests. With a wave of her hand, she made them whole again. Rainbowy light washed across the sky, and suddenly, the faces of the eight original Digidestined were lit with a kind of electric power that the kids had never seen them display.

"Enjoy it while you can, Digidestined," she said. 

With that, she raised the eight Crests into the air. They hung, suspended, while the Armor Megas and their partners waited with bated breath.

DarkEmpiramon caught sight of Kari, who had just passed Tania to TK for a moment. "Bearer of Light, prepare for pain you haven't felt in twenty-nine years!" she trilled, pointing at the newly repaired Crest of Light.

Suddenly, Kari halted. She drew a deep breath, and clutched her chest. Her face was contorted with severe pain.

"Mom!" Hikaru screamed, reaching up as though she could touch her mother.

Kari's face turned deep purple, and she began to cough violently. Black blood frothed out of the corners of her mouth and she doubled over.

"STOP IT!" Kiko cried. "Stop it, stop it, stop it!" 

"Bearer of Love!" DarkEmpiramon went on, oblivious to the cries of the children below her. "I give you the worst memory you ever had in your life…the day you were in the car crash with your mother, and only you survived!"

Sora's amber-red eyes widened. As her children watched her in the sky, she screamed over and over again, giving a voice to the anguish she had kept inside her for seventeen years. "Momma!" she was screaming, holding her face in her hands. "Momma! Damn it, it's not fair! You were never supposed to die! I was so stupid, for insisting on driving, even though you wanted to walk!" 

Lee, Holly and Leon stared at their mother. They had known that their grandmother Ryoko had died before any of them had been born, but they had never known how. 

"Bearer of Reliability!" DarkEmpiramon went on. "You were such a wimp. A pitiful child, a little wiener schnitzel…here are your memories of those days!" 

Dr. Kido's memories of his twelfth year of life flashed before him. Chris couldn't take it any longer watching them all suffer and balled his fists. 

"STOP!" he yelled. "Teach that bitch a lesson, Giga-Psychomon!" 

"_Electro-Surge!_" his Digimon shouted. A wave of sparking electricity hit DarkEmpiramon so hard that whatever magic held the Crests up made them drop. 

"Catch them!" Holly cried. She caught her mother's Crest and looked at the sky longingly. Her mother stood there, tears flowing in a torrent down her pale face. No soft words from her father were working to soothe her.

Holly took the Crest in her hands and clutched it tightly. "Mom, don't dwell on Grandma Ryoko's death. Instead, remember her life. How much you loved her. Let that heal your heart and strengthen your resolve."

Sora gave a ragged gasp and put her hand to her heart. The tears that had been on her face a moment before were wiped away. 

Hikaru had caught Kari's Crest and was now putting it into her knapsack. "You'll be fine, Mom," she said softly. "You always are. You'll be better when I see you."

Kari straightened up. Her face was slowly returning to its normal color. She wiped the blood from her mouth and reached for her baby, who was crying. 

"Dr. Kido," Chris said with Joe's Crest in hand. "You're a prestigious man today. Forget your past. It's gone."

Dr. Kido looked up, with a new light shining in his eyes. He had forgotten. 

DarkEmpiramon screeched with rage as Lee hastily collected the rest of the Crests that had fallen from the sky. "You imbeciles!" she screamed. "My plan was perfect!" 

"Unfortunately, you picked the wrong bunch of kids to mess with," Jenna said coldly. "Digidestined, let's do it."

Their Digimon encircled the hideous creature. They let loose their attacks in a barrage that shook the ground around them.

"_Solar Rays!"_

"Katana Slash!" 

"Twin Golden Harmony!" (This was from both Antaresmon and Arcturusmon.)

__

"Electro-Surge!" 

"Killing Blizzard!" 

"Lizard Punch!" 

"Saggitari-Slammer!" 

"Fury Whirlwind!"

"Omni-Blazer!"

"Ice Star!"

"Cat's Eye Nebula!"

"Dynamite Spiel!"

"Blood Bath!"

The attacks all slammed into her, forcing her into the fetal position on the ground. She whimpered like a little child. 

"Please…no more," she cried.

Siriusmon loomed in front of her. "For such a heinous existence you have been living, you deserve to die in the most horrible way possible," she boomed. "That is why, with this final digivolution, we will conquer you once and for all."

She spread out her tendrils of flame and called out her name. "Siriusmon…"

The others followed her lead.

"Dynamon…"

"CyperPiedMyotismon…"

"MegaBergeamon…"

"Antaresmon…"

"Arcturusmon…"

"Kayamon…"

"Spicamon…"

"Giga-Psychomon…"

"Segamon…"

"Aerismon…"

"Kismetmon…"

"Nekokomon…"

"Umbramon…"

"Pure-heart digivolve to…"

A beam of strong white light shot down on them all from the sky. They were all pulled into the light, forming a gigantic, long, undulating serpent Digimon. He (or she, or it, whatever) was bound in golden chains. It had eight intelligent blue eyes and many small golden wings supporting it. 

"AZULONGMON!"

Jenna stared. "Oh my God," she gasped. 

"What is it?" Lee wondered. 

"It's FREAKING HUGE!" Kinaka yelled.

"No kidding!" Lauren shot back.

Azulongmon floated wordlessly in the sky, directly above DarkEmpiramon. She cowered under the massive creature's gaze. Light was still eminating from it.

"DarkEmpiramon!" it boomed in a strange assortment of voices. Fourteen voices, all as one. "Do you understand what has happened here before you?"

She appeared to shrink with fear. "I realize I deserve to die," she whimpered. "But hear me out first."

Azulongmon paused. "I'm listening."

__

"All right, then. _Dark Hypnotic Rays!" _she screamed. She rose into the air and struck at Azulongmon. A line of blood welled up where she attacked it.

"Foolish!" it bellowed. Shocked, DarkEmpiramon hung there in the air. 

"Did you really think you could kill a Pure-level Digimon? You scum! You lower life-form bastard! For your insolence, you will duly pay!"

Energy seemed to swell up from nowhere. Waves of it cascaded over Azulongmon, who gathered them into his cavernous mouth. 

"_GRAND ANCIENT LIGHT BLASTER!"_ it screamed. The energy blast bore a hole clean through DarkEmpiramon, who was catapulted to the ground. 

"AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!" she screamed, writhing in agony as she was swallowed up by a dark cloud. She dissolved into data almost immediately after.

The massive Digimon in the sky radiated a burst of brilliant white light. As they all watched, transfixed, their Digimon broke apart from them as little Rookies. 

Lee was the first to reach her Digimon, who was lying on her side in the thick, black water. "Starymon?" she asked tentatively, gathering her into her arms. 

She opened one golden eye and smiled. "I'm fine, Lee," she said. "Except for one thing…"

Lee looked horrified. "Where does it hurt?" she cried out. 

Starymon grinned. "It's not that. Lee…do you have any food on you?"

The noise they were all making at that very moment was incredible. Anyone a mile off would have been able to hear how they were hollering. They hugged, spun around, danced, laughed…

Kim nudged Lee and Holly, and grinned evilly. "Look over there," she snickered. 

Lee and Holly looked. There was their big brother, all dignity forgotten, swinging Jenna around and laughing like a maniac. 

Holly caught Lee's eye and winked. 

Above them, the images of their parents began to fade away. The sky cleared up and became pale blue. The debris that fell from above repaired itself over the city. 

Finally, the Digital World was at peace.


	20. Round-Trip Flight Home

Oh, dear. The third-last chapter of the series. ::blows nose:: 

OK, you guys, here's what's going on now. In this chapter, we will see all sorts of soul baring from our beloved DD. And…something else I hope you will like. Enjoy!

PS: Just for fun, here's some trivia—

#1-How many Digimon have I named after stars?

#2-In the last chapter and the one before, how many attacks does DarkEmpiramon use? What is the full list of them?

#3-What are the names of the three programs on Lauren's laptop? (You'll have to look far back for some.)

Leave me a review with the answers! J 

****

Next Generation: …And So It Begins (Again)

Chapter Twenty: Round-Trip Flight Home

They were offered rooms in one of the only buildings that remained standing in the city. Grateful and exhausted, they slept. And they slept. For almost twenty hours, they slept while the batteries in the laptop charged up again. 

When they awoke, the little Numemon were up and about, fixing up the city. They had erected some of the buildings and salvaged most of what they could. They were clearly tiring, however; so after lunch that morning, they began to help the clean-up crew. They were unspeakably filthy by the time they were done, but a hot bath around the fountain was waiting for them after they had dinner. 

Another night was spent in that slowly healing city. However, they couldn't sleep, nor could their Digimon partners. They knew what was coming. It was inevitable.

Soon, they would be leaving. 

That very next day, immediately after a sumptuous pancake breakfast, they had to leave the city. 

"Goodbye!" the chief Numemon called after them. "Go well, Digidestined, and may the Ancients guide you!"

They turned and waved as they walked down the pipe they came though and into the heart of Server. 

The day was quite emotional. Looking back, Lee could barely remember how she forced herself to walk in the direction Gennai's house could be found. The others were listless, upset, and apprehensive. 

Kiko and Mike looked like they were going to cry. 

Holly and Tina already were. 

Cleo and Deanna walked in stony silence.

Jenna and Leon kept stealing furtive glances at eachother when the other wasn't looking. 

Chris and Hikaru were doing the same.

Kim and Lee were putting on painful, stiff smiles that were obviously fake. 

Kinaka and Lauren were looking like they wanted to kill someone.

They stopped for lunch at the edge of a lake. Wordlessly, they caught some fish and Chris and Hikaru cooked it. They sat in silence, chewing their food, all clearly upset and worried.

Finally, after an agonizing silent hour, Kim spoke up.

"You guys," she said hesitantly. "I was just thinking. When we get to Gennai's, what do you suppose is going to happen to us?"

Cleo looked down at her hands. "I don't know," she said shakily. "Once we get there…"

"That's it, for once and for all," Jenna cut in. "He'll send us home."

Kiko looked absolutely distraught. "Will I ever see you again, Empramon?" he asked the little owl Digimon.

Empramon puffed his feathers out. "What does your heart tell you, Kiko?"

"Yes!" the little boy averred. "We _will_ meet! Of _course _we will!" 

Tina smiled. "I sure hope so," she said wistfully. 

Their partners smiled at them, some nuzzling their companions and some making little reassuring sounds to comfort them.

They finished the rest of their lunch in silence.

That night, as they were seated around the fire, Lee spoke up.

"Kim, I realized something," she said. "You're my partner and everything, but I still don't know a whole lot about you."

Kim swatted her. "Like hell you don't! You've only spent the last, what, twenty-eight days with me?"

"Seriously!" she insisted. "Tell me about yourself."

Kim leaned back against her knapsack and grinned. "Where do I start? I'm half Canadian, half Japanese. My mother's a professional hockey player and my dad runs a restaurant. I was born on my parents' anniversary, when they were vacationing in the Caribbean. I guess just seeing the pictures from their honeymoon makes me want to be a photographer. You know, see the sights, all that sort of stuff. Mom's been trying to introduce me to hockey, but she just can't do it. Sometimes, she insists I'm more like her friend Jess than she is…"

"I remember my dad's friend mentioning her," Kinaka broke in. "Jess, his old girlfriend's photographer friend. She married a famous writer in Colorado, and they have twin boys. Right?"

She nodded. "Right. Anyway, that's just about all I haven't told you about myself, Lee."

Lee looked happy. "Anything you wanna know?" she asked. 

Kim looked impish. "How 'bout telling me what else you brought in that duffel bag of yours!" 

Lee dumped out the contents of her duffel bag. Inside were her Gameboy Advanced, six games, an extra set of batteries, a set of keys, her soccer ball and football, and two small books. 

"Whassat?" Kinaka asked, opening the first book. It was a guide of the constellations in the sky, and in the margins of the pages were notes in Lee's writing. "What are you, an astronomer?"

"Astronomer and astrologist," Holly groaned. "It's her other passion, besides sports. She drives us nuts with it."

The other book turned out to be yearly predictions on all twelve astrological signs. "Anyone want their fortune told?" Lee grinned. 

"I do! I do!" everyone called out at once.

"Whom to choose, whom to choose," Lee laughed. "All right. Kim, what's your sign?"

"Taurus."

Lee flipped to November 18 (which would be the next day) and read out, "When embarking on a journey, don't forget that bonds once made are never broken."

"That's cool," Cleo said. "Do me next! I'm Pisces."

"For Pisces: 'Tomorrow promises to be a day of sorrow, but you will not be alone. Companions you made recently will still be there to guide you, and your loss will eventually be gained back.' If I didn't know any better, these horoscopes are truly screwed!" Lee said. 

Kinaka sat back against a stone. "I'm Aries," she said to her cousin. "What's it say?"

Lee frowned. "Problems in the household will clear up. You will make a startling discovery that will be revealed to you by someone you have not had contact with in a long time. All your problems will seem meaningless."

"Sounds nice," Lauren said. "Maybe it means all your problems with your dad will clear up. That'd be great, huh?"

"Problems." Kinaka spat bitterly. "You haven't seen my problems. I know I've been bitching at you about my mom, and I'm sorry for that. But you guys have never known that kind of pain. Did any of you lose your mother at a young age? Didn't think so. You know what, my dad was always gone on those space missions, so he had no time to notice that I missed him or needed him when she was gone. He was a stranger in my life. He went on six of them in my life so far. First Deep Space Mars, when I was a year old. I barely remember it, but he came home when I was three. When I was four, he went for three months into the International Space Station. Next it was Diamond in the Sky, when he was mining the moon for diamonds. I was six then. Someone in the crew died, and he had to come home. After that came the Jupiter Project, not much later. I spent ten months in Kobe with my senile grandfather, my grandmother who was in remission from a brain tumor, and my mother. Dad came home a week before my seventh birthday, and he stayed home for maybe two years after Mom disappeared. In those two years, I doubt I even said five full sentences to him. We were so distant from eachother. And then he got me to live with his friend Ange in Canada for six months while he was on those last two missions to Saturn and Pluto. I've only been home for five months, and we still treat eachother like strangers. We never hug. We never discuss things, not even what we're having for breakfast. So you want to see loss? I'm practically an orphan. That's what it feels like, anyway."

Everyone looked sympathetic. "Maybe I should put this away," Lee said quickly. She made like she was going to put it back, but Jenna stopped her. 

"Can you do mine next?" she asked. "My sign's Aquarius."

Holly snickered.

"What's so funny?" Jenna demanded.

"It's just that…well, that's Leon's sign too," she giggled.

"Ah, what the hell. Read, Miss Independence," Jenna instructed.

Lee read over the horoscope and grinned. "It says here that 'The truth shall set you free. Although it is a great idea to get this off your chest, do so with caution in case the wrong words condemn you.' That is freaky. If I'd had a horoscope like that—"

"Can it, Lee," Leon grumbled. 

"Sorry, Bubby," she said sweetly, batting her eyelashes at him. "But if you've got a secret, you may as well tell it. Like how you kept from Mom and Dad that it was you who broke the refrigerator door and not me or Holl—"

"Lee! Don't you know when to quit?"

"It's Lee we're talking about, Leon," Holly put in. "She doesn't know how!" 

The laptop beeped then, saving Lee from killing her siblings on the spot. Lauren opened it, and there was a gorgeous young man with dark brown hair and bright blue eyes. He wore pristine beige robes and a happy smile.

"Hello there, Digidestined," he grinned. "I see you were successful in your battle."

"Who are you?" Lauren asked suspiciously. 

Just then, Tina recognised the expression on his face and gasped. "Gennai?!" she exclaimed, looking shocked. "That is so amazing! You look—you look—"

"HOT!" Lauren and Kinaka said in unison.

"Eww…" Kiko and Mike groaned.

Gennai gave his usual benign smile and began to speak. "I've reverted back to my youthful form," he said. "I guess I'll be seeing you tomorrow?"

"Yes!" Lauren affirmed, blushing furiously. 

Deanna nudged her. "Lauren, gross me out! Do you know how old he is?"

"He's old enough!" Lauren replied, practically drooling. Kinaka was in pretty much in the same condition.

"See you later, then. And don't forget to talk to your parents!" With that, the screen went blank. 

Wordlessly, Lauren opened up comm2.exe. She was greeted by her father's face. 

"Dad!" she cried. "Dad, we're coming home soon!" 

This statement met the adults with shock and joy mixed. While they chatted, Hikaru noticed that her mother had a thoughtful expression on her face. 

"Mom?" she asked. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Kari replied. "But I was just wondering why Gennai didn't instruct you to take the Digi-Port instead of going to his house."

Davis hit himself in the forehead. "Damn! Why didn't I think of that?" he cried out.

"Try it now," Yolei urged her daughters.

Cleo whipped out her D-X as the Digi-Port arranged itself on the screen. "Digi-Port, open!" she cried. 

The red light blinked on the Port, as a tinny beeping noise pervaded the night. Then it was silent. 

The Digi-Port hadn't opened.

"Try again," Ken urged.

"Digi-Port, OPEN!" Cleo yelled. Still nothing.

"Why are they sealed?" Yolei cried in alarm.

A split screen appeared, and there was Gennai again. "My apologies," he said. "The Port was damaged after MetalDevimon and Sabinemon attacked them their first day here. It's almost finished. I promise."

"Well, that's that then," Tai said brightly as the split screen disappeared. "You kids rest up. We'll be right here waiting in the morning."

"All right, Dad," Lee said softly. 

The screen went blank, and Lauren closed the laptop.

"Let's sleep now," she suggested. "We have to get some rest if we want to make it to Gennai's house tomorrow. OK?"

"OK," the others agreed.

It was at least one o'clock by the time they all fell asleep. 

Leon woke up at around 2:30 A.M. He hadn't been able to sleep all night, partly from excitement for the next day, and partly for fear that he'd never see Fangmon again.

__

I need some water, he decided. He looked long and hard at his sleeping partner before getting up and exiting the clearing they were sleeping in.

A small lake lay nearby. He knelt at the edge, dipped his hands in the water, and splashed the cool liquid on his face. After he'd dried his face, he took a drink, then sat back on his heels. The moon and stars were especially bright that night, casting their sparkling glow onto the surface of the lake.

The tranquil surface was broken by a flat rock, tossed in by someone behind him. Startled, Leon lost his balance and nearly fell into the water face first. Hearing a coquettish little laugh behind him, he got up and turned to face Jenna. She was laughing at him and grinning at her own cleverness.

"Scared ya," she giggled.

"What are you doing up?" he asked. At any other time he would have probably told her off for disrupting the peace, but something was silencing him.

She shrugged and walked up next to him. "It's our last night here. I guess I just can't sleep knowing that," she sighed. 

Jenna gazed up at the stars. They twinkled with a beautiful light, forming constellations she knew she would have never seen on Earth. "This world is so strange," she commented. "But for all its vices, there are some virtues too. Like those stars up there. They're absolutely beautiful."

Without really thinking about what he was doing, Leon put one strong arm around her shoulders. "And our Digimon partners," he added. "Don't forget them. They're the ones who helped us get through all the crap we went through, you know? It just hurts knowing we'll probably never be back here to see them."

She sighed. "I know. Trust me, I know. I'm going to miss Pikkimon so much…I mean, she's like the best friend I ever had. And then there's you all, and I hate to think about not being around you guys."

"I…I think I know how you feel."

"Yeah." She leaned against him contentedly. "After all this, it's like you guys became my brothers and sisters."

The moment the words left her mouth, she knew she had screwed up royally. 

Leon let go of her in a hurry. "Brothers and sisters?" he said incredulously. His eyes were wide with shock. "That's how you thought of us? So, what, you think of me like a brother or something?"

With that, he turned on his heel and started to walk back to the clearing.

Cursing herself, Jenna ran after him. She had made one of the biggest mistakes of her life, and she knew it. "Leon!" she called. "Leon, wait! I didn't mean it like that!" 

He turned to face her. Rage was written across his face. "Then what _did_ you mean by that, Jenna? Because I'd really like to know!" he shouted. 

She shrank under his gaze. Suddenly, she felt a whole lot smaller, even though he was only a few inches taller than she was. "I didn't mean it like that," she repeated. "I truly didn't. It's just that…well…I guess I sort of did mean it like that, but I meant the others were that close to me. You, on the other hand, are different." She put her hand on his shoulder. "Listen to me, Leon Kamiya. You are so much more different from the others. For one, you're even closer than a sibling to me. A lot closer. I mean, come on, it's that DNA digivolution thing that brought us together. And now…it's like that'll be ripped apart if I don't do something about it. It's gonna be gone by this time tomorrow unless—"

He laid a finger against her lips. "Shh, Jenna. You're babbling now."

"I'm sorry," she muttered. "It's just how I feel. About you, I mean."

His face lit up then, and he looked her straight in the eyes. "Are you saying what I hope you're saying?" he asked quietly. "Because if you are…"

"I guess I am," she admitted. "Leon, I…well…"

He shushed her again and pulled her closer. "I know," he said. "I feel the same way about you."

"I'm glad," she whispered fiercely. "I'm glad."

"Yeah. So am I." Without a moment's hesitation, he leaned down, and kissed her full on her waiting mouth.

__

He feels the same, she thought as they kissed. _Like Lee said, the truth shall set you free. _

They broke apart after a while, still holding eachother close. She nestled her face into his chest, and he rested his chin on the top of her head. 

"That was…"

"Incredible. Damn straight," she finished for him. 

"What do we do now?"

"We're supposed to do something?"

"I mean about everyone else? What do we tell them?"

She pulled back, took one of his hands in hers and smiled softly. "We tell them that your Aunt Kari was right."

Hand in hand, they walked back to the clearing.

Early the next morning, after a breakfast of fish and mangoes from the trees nearby, they set out. It didn't take long for everyone to realize Leon and Jenna's new-found relationship. It was pretty obvious, since they were holding hands the whole time they were walking.

"Way to be, little sister!" Cleo trilled, slapping Jenna on the back. 

Pikkimon's little beady blue eyes twinkled mischievously. "Am I gonna have to break you two apart with a crowbar?" she asked. 

Fangmon kept making kissing noises after Leon.

As for Lee and Holly and the others, they sang for most of the journey, with Lee working Jenna and Leon's names into most of the songs.

"Went too fast, much too slow. But Leon, Jenna's gotta go. Once all that's left is—" Lee started in a parody of "No Sex", but Kim kicked her in the shins and she shut up.

"How 'bout this?" Holly grinned. "Oh Jenna! You came and you gave him some kisses, but now he's stuck his head up his ass, oh Jenna! Well you came and he made you a promise, he's still a bumbling fool, oh Jenna!" 

"Can we sing it right, please?" Lauren called out, half-distracted by Usaiamon trying out her yo-yo. "Oh Marge! You came and you found me a turkey…"

"IT'S MANDY! GAWD!" Deanna cried out.

Lauren stared at her. "How do you know? You lived in the Digital World your whole life!" 

She shrugged. "It's Gennai's favourite song."

It was mid-afternoon by the time they reached Gennai's place. Auroramon got in the water, and it swept away to reveal the stone staircase. Gennai was waiting for them right at the foot of it. 

"Hello," he said. "Are you all ready to go?"

"I…I guess we're as ready as we'll ever be," Lee said hesitantly. Starymon, who was sitting on her shoulder, gave a little whimper. 

Gennai stepped back. "I'll give you all time to say goodbye later. But first, there are some people—I should say, Digimon—who want to meet you."

Curious, they all trailed after Gennai into his house. There, in the living room, were 12 little Rookie Digimon waiting for them.

"Who are you?" Lee asked them.

The little orange baby raptor threw himself off the couch and hugged Lee around the waist. "Tai! Tai!" he said in a high, feeble voice. "I've missed you so much!"

Lee gently disentangled him. "I'm sorry," she said. "But that's my dad. I'm his daughter."

"Oh." Agumon stepped back dejectedly. "My eyes have gotten pretty bad. I'm getting on in years, you know."

A pink bird who identified herself as Biyomon was talking to Holly. "You look a lot like Sora," she said. "You're her daughter, then?"

"Ah-huh."

"You also kind of look like your grandmother. I remember her, from when I went to the real world with Sora."

Gabumon approached Kinaka. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Matt's daughter," he said politely. "How is my old friend?"

"He's an astronaut," Kinaka answered, feeling a bit rattled. 

"Whoa. I thought he'd be a musician!" Gomamon laughed. 

"And you must be TK's little boy!" Patamon squeaked happily. He lifted off the ground and nestled on Kiko's head. "Yup. He's got TK's head."

"Kari's girl. Am I right?" Gatomon asked Hikaru. When Hikaru nodded yes, the little cat rubbed herself against the girl's ankles. Mikomon took that as an opportunity to sniff at Gatomon.

All the Digidestined and the Digimon, old and young, were having a fine old time when Gennai interrupted. 

"Children, it's time for you to go," he said, looking sad. "But don't worry. Your Digimon will be cared for by their parents…the Digimon of your parents. And yes, you will meet them again someday."

Lee turned to Starymon and hugged her tightly. "I'll miss you," she said in her ear. 

"Please come back again soon," Starymon whispered back. Tears dripped silently down her face.

All around them, the Digimon and their partners were hugging, all promising to see eachother someday. There was not a single dry eye in the room.

Once they were all ready to leave, Gennai handed Deanna something. It was a scroll of parchment. 

"It's the prophecies. I want you to keep them with you," he said. "I will miss you all, Digidestined. Especially you, Deanna."

She hugged him tightly. "I never thought I'd actually get to go to Earth," she sighed. "I'll be back, though. Make no mistake!" 

He took Lauren's laptop and opened port[2].exe for them. The Digi-Port flashed to life. 

"Farewell, and good luck," Gennai said. 

"All right! Let's blow this joint! Digi-Port, OPEN!" Lee yelled triumphantly. The Port opened, sending them swirling back through the portal home, where they belonged…


	21. Home is Where the Heart Is

Gah! Oh nooooooooooooo! My reign of terror is coming to an end!!!!! 

~ Ahem ~ Now that I'm off my caffeine rush, lemme tell ya's all what's going to happen after this series ends. Firstly, I'm going to be making a series set four years after "Next Generation". The same characters will be in it, possibly a few less, and no, no third-generation Digidestined show up in this one. (At least, not for a while.) After that, I may or may not do a third thingy, with the kids of the kids in "Next Generation". OK? 

So…sit back and enjoy!

****

Next Generation: …And So It Begins (Again)

Chapter Twenty-One: Home is Where the Heart Is

"AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!"

"Dammit!" Yolei yelled. "Twenty-five years later, and we STILL aren't putting pillows down when kids start shooting out of the screen!

"Mom? You feeling okay?" Cleo asked. 

Ken and Yolei seemed to notice just then that it was their daughters who had shot headfirst out of a computer screen. Elated, they threw their arms around them, crying with joy. 

"I thought you'd never come home!" Yolei sobbed into Jenna's shoulder.

"Your mother was driving me crazy with her worrying!" Ken told Cleo. 

Jenna was turning bright purple. "Ah! Mom! You're cutting off my oxygen supply!" she managed to choke out. 

Similar reunions were going on around the room. 

"WHY ISN'T MIKE WEARING HIS JACKET?!?!?!?!?" Mimi cried out. "He coulda caught a cold! Why didn't you two make sure he was dressed warm?"

"Oh, Mama," Mike groaned, letting himself be smothered by kisses and hugs. 

"Dad, can you check and see if my laptop picked up a virus?"

"Hikaru, WHY isn't Kiko wearing any socks?"

"He took them off! His feet smelled like moldy cheese!"

"Hey mom, Bubby was sucking face with—"

"LEE!"

"_Who_ was he sucking face with?"

"Kinaka, I thought I told you to wear your coat!" 

"It was a freaking jungle in the Digital World!" 

"Great job, Kim."

"Thanks, Daddy. Do I get a raise in my allowance?"

"Jenna! You were doing WHAT?!?!"

"He's perfectly harmless, mom!"

"I don't care!" 

"LEON! What were you THINKING?!?!"

"Uh…'damn, she's hot'?"

"Dee! Darling, are you all right?"

"Uh…momma? MOM! LET ME GO!"

"Hey…wait a sec. Tina! What happened to your ankle?"

"It's something very painful that's known as a sprain."

"So…Chris? Did you behave yourself?"

  
"Dude, calm down! Yo, Dr. Kido, can you write our excuse notes for school?"

Formalities out of the way, all the families just simply hugged eachother. Except for Kinaka and Matt. She wouldn't let him touch her.

"Kina? What's the matter with you?" Matt asked his daughter softly. She was leaning against the door frame, her arms crossed over her chest. 

"I haven't the slightest clue what you're talking about," she said icily. There was no warmth in her eyes, which were practically narrowed into slits. "What makes you think there's something wrong?"

"Kinaka, you're my daughter. Obviously you get your pigheaded streak from me. So spill. What's up with you?"

She regarded him with utmost hate. "Oh, so _that's_ where I got it from," she said angrily. "Are you sure I didn't get it from my _mother?_ The _mother_ you left me with while you were floating around in space? The _mother _that's really an evil Digimon? The _mother_ I had to kill? Come on, Dad. You can't expect to stand there, lie to my face and tell me you didn't know anything about this!" 

"I DIDN'T!" he roared. "Kinaka, I knew nothing about that woman, and I knew her since we were sixteen years old! If I would have known she were an evil Digimon, I would have never married her!"

Kinaka looked shocked. "But then you wouldn't have me," she said. 

He shook his head. "No, Kinaka. That's not true at all. I'd still have you. She…"

He paused, and looked her in the face. 

And then the bombshell dropped.

"She wasn't your mother."

Seconds passed. Two sets of steely blue eyes were locked on eachother. After what seemed like an eternity, Kinaka gave a choked gasp and cried out, "What do you mean, she wasn't my mother? Of course she was! She gave birth to me, didn't she? Why do we look so much alike? WHY? Stop lying, Dad! I saw her again, in the Digital World, looking like the day she walked out on us. You really expect me to believe that wasn't the woman who raised me?"

"She was the woman who raised you, yes, but she didn't give birth to you," Matt said sadly. He pulled his wallet out of his pocket, and showed her a faded photograph of a young woman with long brown hair and sparkling brown eyes. It was quite old, but Kinaka instantly knew who the woman was. 

"That's…"

"It is. It's Angel Little. You know her as Ange, I suppose," he said quietly. "She's your real mother, your birth mother. She was in the same rock band that Sabrina was in. They were best friends, inseparable. I met them both when we were sixteen. I made such a terrible mistake, though. Not in marrying Angel, though. Soon after you were born, I met up with Sabrina again. I guess you're old enough to hear that…well, I wasn't too smart. I let Angel catch us together. She divorced me, saying she didn't want to be with a man who would cheat on her with her best friend. She wouldn't take you home with her because she said you looked too much like me, and it would remind her too much of what had happened."

Kinaka remembered now, about how the woman who was her real mother treated her the previous year. They hadn't liked eachother, for some reason, but at least now she knew what Angel's reason was. 

"That's why you sent me to Canada, when you went on those missions," she said. "But Dad…why? If she didn't want anything to do with me back then, why now?"

"In case something happened to me," he told her. "It was a dangerous mission. Three men died, and I had to watch it happen. No wonder I chose to give up that line of work."

"Whoa! Dad, back the truck up!" Kinaka stared at him. "You quit your job? Why?"

He smiled at her then. The smile lit up his whole face, a smile so much like her own. "I wanted to be able to have some quality time with my daughter. That is, if you don't mind hanging around an old man like me!"

Her eyes welled up with tears. "Dad…"

"Kina…"

He pulled her into a tight hug. And for once, she didn't bother to tell him off for calling her Kina. 

It took Joe exactly half an hour to think up some serious (but not life-threatening) viruses that would explain their absences from school. By the time he was done, all the kids were drooping listlessly.

"Can we go home now?" Mike asked. "I wanna sleep in my own bed…"

Lauren chucked him under the chin. "Squirt, we _are_ home."

"What about us?" Catherine asked. "It has been so nice of you to accommodate our family, Mr. and Mrs. Izumi, but I'm afraid we can't impose on you anymore. We must contact the authorities in France and the United States. No doubt our family's absence has been puzzled over for the last decade or so."

"Of course," Izzy said quickly. "I'll drive your family to the nearest hotel. You can stay there for awhile until you can contact those people."

"All right then. Izzy my man, it's been a great month, but we've all gotta get home," Tai said. "The Olympics are coming up soon, and I've gotta be prepared!"

"Two years, Tai," Sora reminded him. "But yeah, I should get home too. I closed the flower shop for a while. I bet the plants are all dead by now!"

"My patients think I'm on a vacation to the Cayman Islands," said Joe. He looked a bit sheepish.

"I probably lost all the customers in my catering company," Mimi groaned.

Izzy grinned at her. "I work online. My hours are free enough."

"So?" Kari countered. "I'm on maternity leave!"

"Yeah. I think you're all forgetting I'm a housewife?" Yolei added. 

"I quit my job," Matt put in.

"I doubt the graphics studio missed me. Most of the guys are doped-up undergrads," TK grinned.

"Hell, I'm a cop. Think it's easy finding time off work?" Ken added slyly. 

Cody snickered. "Lawyers lie all the time. It's not that hard."

"Yeah, try convincing all the people at the restaurant that I've got typhoid!" Davis cracked.

Jun groaned. "Dai, you were always a terrible liar."

"Damn," Holly sighed. "I guess you guys really did put your lives on hold. All for us."

"You're our kids, Holl. What else were we supposed to do?"

Lee suddenly remembered what she had in her duffel bag. "Hey, would the original Digidestined please come here?" she said. "I believe I have something that belongs to you."

Her bag unzipped itself. Out of it flew the eight Crests, which twinkled and sparkled at the joy of reuniting with their owners. They affixed themselves around their necks, and burst into a beautiful light that both blinded and dazzled everyone present.

"My Crest," Kari said in wonder, her hand over it.

"But how…"

"And why…"

"Never mind questions," Lee grinned. "They're yours again."

Nobody spoke for a long time. Finally, it was Jenna who had the nerve to break the silence.

"Well," she smiled, "shall we go home now?"

Lee and Kim hugged eachother before Lee got into the car. "I'll see you soon, OK?" Lee said, tossing her duffel bag in the trunk. "'Coz if you don't visit from time to time, I will have to kill you!" 

Kim laughed at her. "Sure, Miss Independence! But _you _are gonna have to come to my house too, ya know!"

Lee grinned at her, then got into the back with Holly. Leon was still outside, saying goodbye to Jenna.

Holly leaned over and pounded the horn. "Bubby! Get your butt in gear!" she yelled out the window.

"Yeah! Kiss her goodbye already so we can go!" Lee called.

"Sisters," Leon groaned. 

Jenna smiled up at him. "Well, think about it. In a few more years, you can move out!" she said brightly. 

He laughed, then leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. "Hey, Jenna?" he said suddenly. "If you want, we could maybe…uh…do something next Friday. I'm off work early, so…"

She nodded. "OK. Pick me up at 7:30?"

"Sure."

"OK then."

"OK."

They stood there. 

"Why are you still standing here?"

He shrugged. "I dunno."

"Aren't you supposed to go home?"

"What, you want me to go?"

  
"NO!"

"Well, I don't want to go."

"Neither do I."

"OK then."

"OK."

Dead silence.

"Should I go now?"

"Do whatever you want."

"I think I will."

"OK then."

"OK."

He turned on his heel and got into the car. But he changed his mind halfway, wrenched the car door open again, and ran back to where Jenna was left standing. He swept her off the ground and kissed her again, this time on the lips. They stayed like that for a long time, until Cleo and Holly started to honk the car horns again. It certainly didn't help that the other kids were flashing the headlights of their cars and honking too, while their parents stood around gaping at them.

Blushing, they let go of eachother in an awful hurry. 

"I'll see you Friday at 7:30, then," he said, grinning.

"I'll be waiting."

"Call me, OK?

"Give me your phone number and I will!"

"OK then!"

"OK!"

They quickly exchanged phone numbers. By this time, everyone was blaring their car horns and hooting out the windows of the car.

"Score one for Kamiya!" 

"Go Jenna, go Jenna, go Jenna…"

"Kiss again! That's so freaking cute!"

They blushed again. "Later," Leon said, loping back to the car.

"OK then," she called back. 

"OK!"

One by one, the cars drove out of the parking lot. Only Lauren, Tina and Mike were left behind, staring into the horizon at the mid-day sun.

"Laur?" Mike asked tentatively. 

"Yeah, squirt?"

Mike's big green eyes were tired, but he managed a big smile. "Can you teach me how to do tricks on your yo-yo?"

"All right!" Digging in her pocket, Lauren finally managed to extract her orange-and-yellow swirl yo-yo. Winding it up, she said, "Now, the thing about Around the World is…"

****

Author's Notes

Keep reading! Yes, there is another chapter, but it is a follow-up to tell you about what they did in the weeks post return by Digi-Port. And….

And…

And…

GUESS WHAT??? I'M MAKING A SEQUEL (IN CASE YOU DIDN'T READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTES AT THE BEGINNING)!!! It's going to be called "Predestined" and like I said, it's set 4 years later. It will focus on a couple of characters (mostly) and Kari's little girl Tania. OK? Good.


	22. Epilogue: It Never Ends for Heroes

Here we go, people. The EPILOGUE. The dreaded end to "Next Generation: …And So It Begins (Again)". And so, my great adventure ends. It's been a pleasure writing this and I'm glad everyone who read my fic appreciated the hard work I've put into this. 

At this point in time I would like to thank the following people:

First, there are the people who sent in the profiles for their characters. You know who you are! Without you, the story would be nothing.

Second, the people who reviewed me also deserve a hand. It's because of you that I regained my zest and zeal for writing. Before, I was depressed because my writing was unappreciated and scorned. Now I know that I am truly what I want to be: a writer. I thank you for that. 

And last but not least, I want to thank my two best friends, known here as Fauve and trixieStarrlight. They are my inspiration and I simply could not function without them. 

Ahem. Now I'm done. On with the epilogue. (Due due due…~ scary music ~) 

****

Next Generation: …And So It Begins (Again)

Epilogue: It Never Ends For Heroes

In the weeks to follow, none of them had any time to stop and think about what they had spent an entire month of their lives doing. They certainly had no time with all the schoolwork they had to catch up on. With the resiliency of youth, they finally managed to overcome that particular obstacle and continued to study diligently. Dr. Kido's notes were never questioned. 

When the enormity of what they had been doing finally crashed down on them, they dealt with it in their own ways. The Kamiya children were able to quell their frustration about having to leave their partners by absorbing themselves fully into sports, and in Leon's case, into his new girlfriend. He and Jenna were barely ever seen away from eachother on the weekends and after school. After she graduated and enrolled at his high school, it was even more apparent that those two were going to last a long time.

Chris was able to pull himself out of the downward spiral he had been struggling against since the death of his stepbrother. He managed to scrape by first semester exams with a 89% average and made the honor roll. He was even beginning to learn his father's art of kendo. Hikaru was there with him every step of the way, and although they both knew they felt something for eachother, they realized it would be a long time before their relationship was not frowned upon.

Jenna and Cleo's ways of dealing with it was through their boyfriends. Cleo met a nice guy named Trent weeks after their stint in the Digital World and sometimes went of double dates with Leon and Jenna.

Now that Kinaka's dad was around much more often, they finally had a chance to bond. Their newfound relationship inspired Matt to pick up his guitar again and write an extremely moving song about how much he loved his daughter. Angel Little heard it on the radio one day and came to see him. Before long, the estranged couple married again, and had a little boy they named Julian. Kinaka now had a little brother, a mother, and a father who still loved her no matter what. She wasn't lonely or bitter anymore.

Deanna's family made it back home eventually. She and her immediate family moved back to their home in Maine, while Catherine, John and Lucas moved to Versailles. At first, Deanna was bewildered with the complex and sometimes dangerous new world she was in, but she settled into her new life comfortably after a month or two.

Under her mother's instruction, Kim began to take photographer courses. She delved herself into her work, eventually deciding that it was her calling to be a photographer.

The Izumi children began to delve into the complicated world of computer technology. Mike seemed to be especially adept at his new skills and put them to good use…by teaming up with Kiko to re-open the Digi-Ports again.

It was through their efforts that a new adventure took place…but that's another story.

Author's Notes. 

AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!! IT'S OVER!!!!!!!!!!! ::blows nose repeatedly:: AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!

Well, hope y'alls like it. Look for "Predestined" in April!


End file.
